Updating costs for assets via a messaging system

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for adjusting the costs of assets. A method includes receiving consumption data via a first channel of a plurality of channels. The consumption data indicates an amount of consumption of an asset. The method also includes determining whether one or more predetermined thresholds are satisfied based on the consumption data. The method further includes adjusting a cost of the asset in response to determining that the consumption data satisfies the one or more predetermined thresholds. The method further includes publishing, by a computer processing device, one or more messages indicating an adjusted cost of the asset to one or more client devices via a second channel of the plurality of channels.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/526,249, filed on Jun. 28, 2017. The disclosure of the above-referenced application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

This specification relates to a data communication system and, in particular, to systems and methods for updating costs for assets via a messaging system.

The publish-subscribe (or “PubSub”) pattern is a data communication messaging arrangement implemented by software systems where so-called publishers publish messages to topics and so-called subscribers receive the messages pertaining to particular topics to which they are subscribed. There can be one or more publishers per topic and publishers generally have no knowledge of what subscribers, if any, will receive the published messages. Because publishers may publish large volumes of messages, and subscribers may subscribe to many topics (or “channels”) the overall volume of messages directed to a particular channel and/or subscriber may be difficult to manage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates an example system that supports the PubSub communication pattern.

FIG. 1B illustrates functional layers of software on an example client device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example messaging system.

FIG. 3A is a data flow diagram of an example method for writing data to a streamlet.

FIG. 3B is a data flow diagram of an example method for reading data from a streamlet.

FIG. 4A is a data flow diagram of an example method for publishing messages to a channel of a messaging system.

FIG. 4B is a data flow diagram of an example method for subscribing to a channel of a messaging system.

FIG. 4C is an example data structure for storing messages of a channel of a messaging system.

FIG. 5A is a data flow diagram of an example method for publishing and replicating messages of a messaging system.

FIG. 5B is a data flow diagram of an example method for retrieving stored messages in a messaging system.

FIGS. 5C and 5D are data flow diagrams of example methods for repairing a chain of copies of data in a messaging system.

FIG. 6 is an example data flow diagram for the application of filtering criteria in a messaging system.

FIGS. 7A-7D are illustrations of how messages may be processed using query instructions that include a period-based parameter.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an example method for applying query instructions to published messages for publishers and subscribers of a messaging system.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example system architecture that may be used to that may be used to provide one or more media to one or more subscribers of a messaging system.

FIG. 10A is an example table that illustrates different multipliers that may be applied to an asset based on different expiration thresholds.

FIG. 10B is an example table 1010 that illustrates different multipliers that may be applied to an asset based on different consumption thresholds.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an example method 1100 for adjusting the cost for an asset.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an example computing device that may perform one or more of the operations described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Elements of examples or embodiments described with respect to a given aspect of the invention can be used in various embodiments of another aspect of the invention. For example, it is contemplated that features of dependent claims depending from one independent claim can be used in apparatus, systems, and/or methods of any of the other independent claims.

The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

Many organizations or entities, such as retail businesses, stores, shops, restaurants, coffee shops, markets/grocery stores, etc., may use separate disconnected systems to track and manage the assets provided by the organization to various users (e.g., to customers). For example, different systems may be used to update the cost of an asset, track the amount of assets that are consumed (e.g., purchased or used), etc. It may be difficult to determine how to adjust the cost of an asset using these separate systems. Determining how to adjust the cost may be a long, manual process performed by a manager or administrator (e.g., a store owner, a store manager, etc.). In addition, organizations and entities generally do not factor in expiration dates of assets, the amount of demand for an asset, or the amount of inventory for an asset, when determining the cost for an asset.

The embodiments, examples, and implementations described herein allow for costs of assets to be adjusted in real-time as live data about the consumption of the assets is received. Data related to the consumption of assets may be communicated between components using a real-time messaging system. Because the messaging system allows for the delivery of live data related to the consumption and inventory levels of the assets, the system architecture is able to use this live data to adjust the costs of assets in real-time.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example system 100 that supports the PubSub communication pattern. Publisher clients (e.g., Publisher 1) can publish messages to named channels (e.g., “Channel 1”) by way of the system 100. A message can comprise any type of information including one or more of the following: text, image content, sound content, multimedia content, video content, binary data, and so on. Other types of message data are possible. Subscriber clients (e.g., Subscriber 2) can subscribe to a named channel using the system 100 and start receiving messages which occur after the subscription request or from a given position (e.g., a message number or time offset). A client can be both a publisher and a subscriber.

Depending on the configuration, a PubSub system can be categorized as follows:

-   -   One to One (1:1). In this configuration there is one publisher         and one subscriber per channel. A typical use case is private         messaging.     -   One to Many (1:N). In this configuration there is one publisher         and multiple subscribers per channel. Typical use cases are         broadcasting messages (e.g., stock prices).     -   Many to Many (M:N). In this configuration there are many         publishers publishing to a single channel. The messages are then         delivered to multiple subscribers. Typical use cases are map         applications.

There is no separate operation needed to create a named channel. A channel is created implicitly when the channel is subscribed to or when a message is published to the channel. In some implementations, channel names can be qualified by a name space. A name space comprises one or more channel names. Different name spaces can have the same channel names without causing ambiguity. The name space name can be a prefix of a channel name where the name space and channel name are separated by a dot or other suitable separator. In some implementations, name spaces can be used when specifying channel authorization settings. For instance, the messaging system 100 may have app1.foo and app1.system.notifications channels where “app1” is the name of the name space. The system can allow clients to subscribe and publish to the app1.foo channel. However, clients can only subscribe to, but not publish to the app1.system.notifications channel.

FIG. 1B illustrates functional layers of software on an example client device. A client device (e.g., client 102) is a data processing apparatus such as, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a smart watch, or a server computer. Other types of client devices are possible. The application layer 104 comprises the end-user application(s) that will integrate with the PubSub system 100. The messaging layer 106 is a programmatic interface for the application layer 104 to utilize services of the system 100 such as channel subscription, message publication, message retrieval, user authentication, and user authorization. In some implementations, the messages passed to and from the messaging layer 106 are encoded as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) objects. Other message encoding schemes are possible.

The operating system 108 layer comprises the operating system software on the client 102. In various implementations, messages can be sent and received to/from the system 100 using persistent or non-persistent connections. Persistent connections can be created using, for example, network sockets. A transport protocol such as TCP/IP layer 112 implements the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol communication with the system 100 that can be used by the messaging layer 106 to send messages over connections to the system 100. Other communication protocols are possible including, for example, User Datagram Protocol (UDP). In further implementations, an optional Transport Layer Security (TLS) layer 110 can be employed to ensure the confidentiality of the messages.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example messaging system 100. The system 100 provides functionality for implementing PubSub communication patterns. The system comprises software components and storage that can be deployed at one or more data centers 122 in one or more geographic locations, for example. The system comprises MX nodes (e.g., MX nodes or multiplexer nodes 202, 204 and 206), Q nodes (e.g., Q nodes or queue nodes 208, 210 and 212), one or more configuration manager nodes (e.g., configuration manager 214), and optionally one or more C nodes (e.g., C nodes or cache nodes 220 and 222). Each node can execute in a virtual machine or on a physical machine (e.g., a data processing apparatus). Each MX node can serve as a termination point for one or more publisher and/or subscriber connections through the external network 216. The internal communication among MX nodes, Q nodes, C nodes, and the configuration manager can be conducted over an internal network 218, for example. By way of illustration, MX node 204 can be the terminus of a subscriber connection from client 102. Each Q node buffers channel data for consumption by the MX nodes. An ordered sequence of messages published to a channel is a logical channel stream. For example, if three clients publish messages to a given channel, the combined messages published by the clients comprise a channel stream. Messages can be ordered in a channel stream, for example, by time of publication by the client, by time of receipt by an MX node, or by time of receipt by a Q node. Other ways for ordering messages in a channel stream are possible. In the case where more than one message would be assigned to the same position in the order, one of the messages can be chosen (e.g., randomly) to have a later sequence in the order. Each configuration manager node is responsible for managing Q node load, for example, by assigning channels to Q nodes and/or splitting channel streams into so-called streamlets. Streamlets are discussed further below. The optional C nodes provide caching and load removal from the Q nodes.

In the example messaging system 100, one or more client devices (publishers and/or subscribers) establish respective persistent connections (e.g., TCP connections) to an MX node (e.g., MX node 204). The MX node serves as a termination point for these connections. For instance, external messages (e.g., between respective client devices and the MX node) carried by these connections can be encoded based on an external protocol (e.g., JSON). The MX node terminates the external protocol and translates the external messages to internal communication, and vice versa. The MX nodes publish and subscribe to streamlets on behalf of clients. In this way, an MX node can multiplex and merge requests of client devices subscribing for or publishing to the same channel, thus representing multiple client devices as one, instead of one by one.

In the example messaging system 100, a Q node (e.g., Q node 208) can store one or more streamlets of one or more channel streams. A streamlet is a data buffer for a portion of a channel stream. A streamlet will close to writing when its storage is full. A streamlet will close to reading and writing and be de-allocated when its time-to-live (TTL) has expired. By way of illustration, a streamlet can have a maximum size of 1 MB and a TTL of three minutes. Different channels can have streamlets limited by different sizes and/or by different TTLs. For instance, streamlets in one channel can exist for up to three minutes, while streamlets in another channel can exist for up to 10 minutes. In various implementations, a streamlet corresponds to a computing process running on a Q node. The computing process can be terminated after the streamlet's TTL has expired, thus freeing up computing resources (for the streamlet) back to the Q node, for example.

When receiving a publish request from a client device, an MX node (e.g., MX node 204) makes a request to a configuration manager (e.g., configuration manager 214) to grant access to a streamlet to write the message being published. Note, however, that if the MX node has already been granted write access to a streamlet for the channel (and the channel has not been closed to writing), the MX node can write the message to that streamlet without having to request a grant to access the streamlet. Once a message is written to a streamlet for a channel, the message can be read by MX nodes and provided to subscribers of that channel.

Similarly, when receiving a channel subscription request from a client device, an MX node makes a request to a configuration manager to grant access to a streamlet for the channel from which messages are read. If the MX node has already been granted read access to a streamlet for the channel (and the channel's TTL has not been closed to reading), the MX node can read messages from the streamlet without having to request a grant to access the streamlet. The read messages can then be forwarded to client devices that have subscribed to the channel. In various implementations, messages read from streamlets are cached by MX nodes so that MX nodes can reduce the number of times needed to read from the streamlets.

By way of illustration, an MX node can request a grant from the configuration manager that allows the MX node to store a block of data into a streamlet on a particular Q node that stores streamlets of the particular channel. Example streamlet grant request and grant data structures are as follows:

StreamletGrantRequest = {    “channel”: string( )    “mode”: “read” | “write”    “position”: 0 } StreamletGrantResponse = {    “streamlet-id”: “abcdef82734987”,    “limit-size”: 2000000, # 2 megabytes max    “limit-msgs”: 5000, # 5 thousand messages max    “limit-life”: 4000, # the grant is valid for 4 seconds    “q-node”: string( )    “position”: 0 }

The StreamletGrantRequest data structure stores the name of the stream channel and a mode indicating whether the MX node intends on reading from or writing to the streamlet. The MX node sends the StreamletGrantRequest to a configuration manager node. The configuration manager node, in response, sends the MX node a StreamletGrantResponse data structure. The StreamletGrantResponse contains an identifier of the streamlet (streamlet-id), the maximum size of the streamlet (limit-size), the maximum number of messages that the streamlet can store (limit-msgs), the TTL (limit-life), and an identifier of a Q node (q-node) on which the streamlet resides. The StreamletGrantRequest and StreamletGrantResponse can also have a position field that points to a position in a streamlet (or a position in a channel) for reading from the streamlet.

A grant becomes invalid once the streamlet has closed. For example, a streamlet is closed to reading and writing once the streamlet's TTL has expired and a streamlet is closed to writing when the streamlet's storage is full. When a grant becomes invalid, the MX node can request a new grant from the configuration manager to read from or write to a streamlet. The new grant will reference a different streamlet and will refer to the same or a different Q node depending on where the new streamlet resides.

FIG. 3A is a data flow diagram of an example method for writing data to a streamlet in various embodiments. In FIG. 3A, when an MX node (e.g., MX node 202) request to write to a streamlet is granted by a configuration manager (e.g., configuration manager 214), as described before, the MX node establishes a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection with the Q node (e.g., Q node 208) identified in the grant response received from the configuration manager (302). A streamlet can be written concurrently by multiple write grants (e.g., for messages published by multiple publisher clients). Other types of connection protocols between the MX node and the Q node are possible.

The MX node then sends a prepare-publish message with an identifier of a streamlet that the MX node wants to write to the Q node (304). The streamlet identifier and Q node identifier can be provided by the configuration manager in the write grant as described earlier. The Q node hands over the message to a handler process 301 (e.g., a computing process running on the Q node) for the identified streamlet (306). The handler process can send to the MX node an acknowledgement (308). After receiving the acknowledgement, the MX node starts writing (publishing) messages (e.g., 310, 312, 314, and 318) to the handler process, which in turn stores the received data in the identified streamlet. The handler process can also send acknowledgements (316, 320) to the MX node for the received data. In some implementations, acknowledgements can be piggy-backed or cumulative. For instance, the handler process can send to the MX node an acknowledgement for every predetermined amount of data received (e.g., for every 100 messages received) or for every predetermined time period (e.g., for every one millisecond). Other acknowledgement scheduling algorithms, such as Nagle's algorithm, can be used.

If the streamlet can no longer accept published data (e.g., when the streamlet is full), the handler process sends a Negative-Acknowledgement (NAK) message (330) indicating a problem, following by an EOF (end-of-file) message (332). In this way, the handler process closes the association with the MX node for the publish grant. The MX node can then request a write grant for another streamlet from a configuration manager if the MX node has additional messages to store.

FIG. 3B is a data flow diagram of an example method for reading data from a streamlet in various embodiments. In FIG. 3B, an MX node (e.g., MX node 204) sends to a configuration manager (e.g., configuration manager 214) a request for reading a particular channel starting from a particular message or time offset in the channel. The configuration manager returns to the MX node a read grant including an identifier of a streamlet containing the particular message, a position in the streamlet corresponding to the particular message, and an identifier of a Q node (e.g., Q node 208) containing the particular streamlet. The MX node then establishes a TCP connection with the Q node (352). Other types of connection protocols between the MX node and the Q node are possible.

The MX node then sends to the Q node a subscribe message (354) with the identifier of the streamlet (in the Q node) and the position in the streamlet from which the MX node wants to read (356). The Q node hands over the subscribe message to a handler process 351 for the streamlet (356). The handler process can send to the MX node an acknowledgement (358). The handler process then sends messages (360, 364, 366), starting at the position in the streamlet, to the MX node. In some implementations, the handler process can send all of the messages in the streamlet to the MX node. After sending the last message in a particular streamlet, the handler process can send a notification of the last message to the MX node. The MX node can send to the configuration manager another request for another streamlet containing a next message in the particular channel.

If the particular streamlet is closed (e.g., after its TTL has expired), the handler process can send an unsubscribe message (390), followed by an EOF message (392), to close the association with the MX node for the read grant. The MX node can close the association with the handler process when the MX node moves to another streamlet for messages in the particular channel (e.g., as instructed by the configuration manager). The MX node can also close the association with the handler process if the MX node receives an unsubscribe message from a corresponding client device.

In various implementations, a streamlet can be written into and read from at the same time instance. For example, there can be a valid read grant and a valid write grant at the same time instance. In various implementations, a streamlet can be read concurrently by multiple read grants (e.g., for channels subscribed to by multiple publisher clients). The handler process of the streamlet can order messages from concurrent write grants based on, for example, time-of-arrival, and store the messages based on the order. In this way, messages published to a channel from multiple publisher clients can be serialized and stored in a streamlet of the channel.

In the messaging system 100, one or more C nodes (e.g., C node 220) can offload data transfers from one or more Q nodes. For instance, if there are many MX nodes requesting streamlets from Q nodes for a particular channel, the streamlets can be offloaded and cached in one or more C nodes. The MX nodes (e.g., as instructed by read grants from a configuration manager) can read the streamlets from the C nodes instead.

As described above, messages for a channel in the messaging system 100 are ordered in a channel stream. A configuration manager (e.g., configuration manager 214) splits the channel stream into fixed-sized streamlets that each reside on a respective Q node. In this way, storing a channel stream can be shared among many Q nodes; each Q node stores a portion (one or more streamlets) of the channel stream. More particularly, a streamlet can be stored in, for example, registers and/or dynamic memory elements associated with a computing process on a Q node, thus avoiding the need to access persistent, slower storage devices such as hard disks. This results in faster message access. The configuration manager can also balance load among Q nodes in the messaging system 100 by monitoring respective workloads of the Q nodes and allocating streamlets in a way that avoids overloading any one Q node.

In various implementations, a configuration manager maintains a list identifying each active streamlet, the respective Q node on which the streamlet resides, an identification of the position of the first message in the streamlet, and whether the streamlet is closed for writing. In some implementations, Q nodes notify the configuration manager and/or any MX nodes that are publishing to a streamlet that the streamlet is closed due to being full or when the streamlet's TTL has expired. When a streamlet is closed, the streamlet remains on the configuration manager's list of active streamlets until the streamlet's TTL has expired so that MX nodes can continue to retrieve messages from the streamlet.

When an MX node requests a write grant for a given channel and there is not a streamlet for the channel that can be written to, the configuration manager allocates a new streamlet on one of the Q nodes and returns the identity of the streamlet and the Q node in the StreamletGrantResponse. Otherwise, the configuration manager returns the identity of the currently open for writing streamlet and corresponding Q node in the StreamletGrantResponse. MX nodes can publish messages to the streamlet until the streamlet is full or the streamlet's TTL has expired, after which a new streamlet can be allocated by the configuration manager.

When an MX node requests a read grant for a given channel and there is not a streamlet for the channel that can be read from, the configuration manager allocates a new streamlet on one of the Q nodes and returns the identity of the streamlet and the Q node in the StreamletGrantResponse. Otherwise, the configuration manager returns the identity of the streamlet and Q node that contains the position from which the MX node wishes to read. The Q node can then begin sending messages to the MX node from the streamlet beginning at the specified position until there are no more messages in the streamlet to send. When a new message is published to a streamlet, MX nodes that have subscribed to that streamlet will receive the new message. If a streamlet's TTL has expired, the handler process 351 can send an EOF message (392) to any MX nodes that are subscribed to the streamlet.

In some implementations, the messaging system 100 can include multiple configuration managers (e.g., configuration manager 214 plus one or more other configuration managers). Multiple configuration managers can provide resiliency and prevent single point of failure. For instance, one configuration manager can replicate lists of streamlets and current grants it maintains to another “slave” configuration manager. As another example, multiple configuration managers can coordinate operations between them using distributed consensus protocols, such as, for example, Paxos or Raft protocols.

FIG. 4A is a data flow diagram of an example method for publishing messages to a channel of a messaging system. In FIG. 4A, publishers (e.g., publisher clients 402, 404, 406) publish messages to the messaging system 100 described earlier in reference to FIG. 2. For instance, publishers 402 respectively establish connections 411 and send publish requests to the MX node 202. Publishers 404 respectively establish connections 413 and send publish requests to the MX node 206. Publishers 406 respectively establish connections 415 and send publish requests to the MX node 204. Here, the MX nodes can communicate (417) with a configuration manager (e.g., configuration manager 214) and one or more Q nodes (e.g., Q nodes 212 and 208) in the messaging system 100 via the internal network 218.

By way of illustration, each publish request (e.g., in JSON key/value pairs) from a publisher to an MX node includes a channel name and a message. The MX node (e.g., MX node 202) can assign the message in the publish request to a distinct channel in the messaging system 100 based on the channel name (e.g., “foo”) of the publish request. The MX node can confirm the assigned channel with the configuration manager 214. If the channel (specified in the subscribe request) does not yet exist in the messaging system 100, the configuration manager can create and maintain a new channel in the messaging system 100. For instance, the configuration manager can maintain a new channel by maintaining a list identifying each active streamlet of the channel's stream, the respective Q node on which the streamlet resides, and identification of the positions of the first and last messages in the streamlet as described earlier.

For messages of a particular channel, the MX node can store the messages in one or more buffers or streamlets in the messaging system 100. For instance, the MX node 202 receives from the publishers 402 requests to publish messages M11, M12, M13, and M14 to a channel foo. The MX node 206 receives from the publishers 404 requests to publish messages M78 and M79 to the channel foo. The MX node 204 receives from the publishers 406 requests to publish messages M26, M27, M28, M29, M30, and M31 to the channel foo.

The MX nodes can identify one or more streamlets for storing messages for the channel foo. As described earlier, each MX node can request a write grant from the configuration manager 214 that allows the MX node to store the messages in a streamlet of the channel foo. For instance, the MX node 202 receives a grant from the configuration manager 214 to write messages M11, M12, M13, and M14 to a streamlet 4101 on the Q node 212. The MX node 206 receives a grant from the configuration manager 214 to write messages M78 and M79 to the streamlet 4101. Here, the streamlet 4101 is the last one (at the moment) of a sequence of streamlets of the channel stream 430 storing messages of the channel foo. The streamlet 4101 has messages (421) of the channel foo that were previously stored in the streamlet 4101, but is still open, i.e., the streamlet 4101 still has space for storing more messages and the streamlet's TTL has not expired.

The MX node 202 can arrange the messages for the channel foo based on the respective time that each message was received by the MX node 202, e.g., M11, M13, M14, M12 (422), and store the received messages as arranged in the streamlet 4101. That is, the MX node 202 receives M11 first, followed by M13, M14, and M12. Similarly, the MX node 206 can arrange the messages for the channel foo based on their respective time that each message was received by the MX node 206, e.g., M78, M79 (423), and store the received messages as arranged in the streamlet 4101. Other arrangements or ordering of the messages for the channel are possible.

The MX node 202 (or MX node 206) can store the received messages using the method for writing data to a streamlet described earlier in reference to FIG. 3A, for example. In various implementations, the MX node 202 (or MX node 206) can buffer (e.g., in a local data buffer) the received messages for the channel foo and store the received messages in a streamlet for the channel foo (e.g., streamlet 4101) when the buffered messages reach a predetermined number or size (e.g., 100 messages) or when a predetermined time (e.g., 50 milliseconds) has elapsed. For instance, the MX node 202 can store in the streamlet 100 messages at a time or in every 50 milliseconds. Other appropriate algorithms and techniques, such as Nagle's algorithm, can be used for managing the buffered messages.

In various implementations, the Q node 212 (e.g., a handler process) stores the messages of the channel foo in the streamlet 4101 in the order as arranged by the MX node 202 and MX node 206. The Q node 212 stores the messages of the channel foo in the streamlet 4101 in the order the Q node 212 receives the messages. For instance, assume that the Q node 212 receives messages M78 (from the MX node 206) first, followed by messages M11 and M13 (from the MX node 202), M79 (from the MX node 206), and M14 and M12 (from the MX node 202). The Q node 212 stores in the streamlet 4101 the messages in the order as received, e.g., M78, M11, M13, M79, M14, and M12, immediately after the messages 421 that are already stored in the streamlet 4101. In this way, messages published to the channel foo from multiple publishers (e.g., 402, 404) can be serialized in a particular order and stored in the streamlet 4101 of the channel foo. Different subscribers that subscribe to the channel foo will receive messages of the channel foo in the same particular order, as will be described in more detail in reference to FIG. 4B.

In the example of FIG. 4A, at a time instance after the message M12 was stored in the streamlet 4101, the MX node 204 requests a grant from the configuration manager 214 to write to the channel foo. The configuration manager 214 provides the MX node 204 a grant to write messages to the streamlet 4101, as the streamlet 4101 is still open for writing. The MX node 204 arranges the messages for the channel foo based on the respective time that each message was received by the MX node 204, e.g., M26, M27, M31, M29, M30, M28 (424), and stores the messages as arranged for the channel foo.

By way of illustration, assume that the message M26 is stored to the last available position of the streamlet 4101. As the streamlet 4101 is now full, the Q node 212 sends to the MX node 204 a NAK message, following by an EOF message, to close the association with the MX node 204 for the write grant, as described earlier in reference to FIG. 3A. The MX node 204 then requests another write grant from the configuration manager 214 for additional messages (e.g., M27, M31, and so on) for the channel foo.

The configuration manager 214 can monitor available Q nodes in the messaging system 100 for their respective workloads (e.g., how many streamlets are residing in each Q node). The configuration manager 214 can allocate a streamlet for the write request from the MX node 204 such that overloading (e.g., too many streamlets or too many read or write grants) can be avoided for any given Q node. For instance, the configuration manager 214 can identify a least loaded Q node in the messaging system 100 and allocate a new streamlet on the least loaded Q node for write requests from the MX node 204. In the example of FIG. 4A, the configuration manager 214 allocates a new streamlet 4102 on the Q node 208 and provides a write grant to the MX node 204 to write messages for the channel foo to the streamlet 4102. As shown in FIG. 4A, the Q node stores in the streamlet 4102 the messages from the MX node 204 in an order as arranged by the MX node 204: M27, M31, M29, M30, and M28 (assuming that there is no other concurrent write grant for the streamlet 4102 at the moment).

When the configuration manager 214 allocates a new streamlet (e.g., streamlet 4102) for a request for a grant from an MX node (e.g., MX node 204) to write to a channel (e.g., foo), the configuration manager 214 assigns to the streamlet its TTL, which will expire after TTLs of other streamlets that are already in the channel's stream. For instance, the configuration manager 214 can assign to each streamlet of the channel foo's channel stream a TTL of 3 minutes when allocating the streamlet. That is, each streamlet will expire 3 minutes after it is allocated (created) by the configuration manager 214. Since a new streamlet is allocated after a previous streamlet is closed (e.g., filled entirely or expired), in this way, the channel foo's channel stream comprises streamlets that each expires sequentially after its previous streamlet expires. For instance, as shown in an example channel stream 430 of the channel foo in FIG. 4A, streamlet 4098 and streamlets before 4098 have expired (as indicated by the dotted-lined gray-out boxes). Messages stored in these expired streamlets are not available for reading for subscribers of the channel foo. Streamlets 4099, 4100, 4101, and 4102 are still active (not expired). The streamlets 4099, 4100, and 4101 are closed for writing, but still are available for reading. The streamlet 4102 is available for reading and writing, at the moment when the message M28 was stored in the streamlet 4102. At a later time, the streamlet 4099 will expire, following by the streamlets 4100, 4101, and so on.

FIG. 4B is a data flow diagram of an example method for subscribing to a channel of a messaging system. In FIG. 4B, a subscriber 480 establishes a connection 462 with an MX node 461 of the messaging system 100. Subscriber 482 establishes a connection 463 with the MX node 461. Subscriber 485 establishes a connection 467 with an MX node 468 of the messaging system 100. Here, the MX nodes 461 and 468 can respectively communicate (464) with the configuration manager 214 and one or more Q nodes in the messaging system 100 via the internal network 218.

A subscriber (e.g., subscriber 480) can subscribe to the channel foo of the messaging system 100 by establishing a connection (e.g., 462) and sending a request for subscribing to messages of the channel foo to an MX node (e.g., MX node 461). The request (e.g., in JSON key/value pairs) can include a channel name, such as, for example, “foo.” When receiving the subscribe request, the MX node 461 can send to the configuration manager 214 a request for a read grant for a streamlet in the channel foo's channel stream.

By way of illustration, assume that at the current moment the channel foo's channel stream 431 includes active streamlets 4102, 4103, and 4104, as shown in FIG. 4B. The streamlets 4102 and 4103 each are full. The streamlet 4104 stores messages of the channel foo, including the last message (at the current moment) stored at a position 47731. Streamlets 4101 and streamlets before 4101 are invalid, as their respective TTLs have expired. Note that the messages M78, M11, M13, M79, M14, M12, and M26 stored in the streamlet 4101, described earlier in reference to FIG. 4A, are no longer available for subscribers of the channel foo, since the streamlet 4101 is no longer valid, as its TTL has expired. As described earlier, each streamlet in the channel foo's channel stream has a TTL of 3 minutes, thus only messages (as stored in streamlets of the channel foo) that are published to the channel foo (i.e., stored into the channel's streamlets) no earlier than 3 minutes from the current time can be available for subscribers of the channel foo.

The MX node 461 can request a read grant for all available messages in the channel foo, for example, when the subscriber 480 is a new subscriber to the channel foo. Based on the request, the configuration manager 214 provides the MX node 461 a read grant to the streamlet 4102 (on the Q node 208) that is the earliest streamlet in the active streamlets of the channel foo (i.e., the first in the sequence of the active streamlets). The MX node 461 can retrieve messages in the streamlet 4102 from the Q node 208, using the method for reading data from a streamlet described earlier in reference to FIG. 3B, for example. Note that the messages retrieved from the streamlet 4102 maintain the same order as stored in the streamlet 4102. However, other arrangements or ordering of the messages in the streamlet are possible. In various implementations, when providing messages stored in the streamlet 4102 to the MX node 461, the Q node 208 can buffer (e.g., in a local data buffer) the messages and send the messages to the MX node 461 when the buffer messages reach a predetermined number or size (e.g., 200 messages) or a predetermined time (e.g., 50 milliseconds) has elapsed. For instance, the Q node 208 can send the channel foo's messages (from the streamlet 4102) to the MX node 461 200 messages at a time or in every 50 milliseconds. Other appropriate algorithms and techniques, such as Nagle's algorithm, can be used for managing the buffered messages.

After receiving the last message in the streamlet 4102, the MX node 461 can send an acknowledgement to the Q node 208, and send to the configuration manager 214 another request (e.g., for a read grant) for the next streamlet in the channel stream of the channel foo. Based on the request, the configuration manager 214 provides the MX node 461 a read grant to the streamlet 4103 (on Q node 472) that logically follows the streamlet 4102 in the sequence of active streamlets of the channel foo. The MX node 461 can retrieve messages stored in the streamlet 4103, e.g., using the method for reading data from a streamlet described earlier in reference to FIG. 3B, until it retrieves the last message stored in the streamlet 4103. The MX node 461 can send to the configuration manager 214 yet another request for a read grant for messages in the next streamlet 4104 (on Q node 474). After receiving the read grant, the MX node 461 retrieves messages of the channel foo stored in the streamlet 4104, until the last message at the position 47731. Similarly, the MX node 468 can retrieve messages from the streamlets 4102, 4103, and 4104 (as shown with dotted arrows in FIG. 4B), and provide the messages to the subscriber 485.

The MX node 461 can send the retrieved messages of the channel foo to the subscriber 480 (via the connection 462) while receiving the messages from the Q nodes 208, 472, or 474. In various implementations, the MX node 461 can store the retrieved messages in a local buffer. In this way, the retrieved messages can be provided to another subscriber (e.g., subscriber 482) when the other subscriber subscribes to the channel foo and requests the channel's messages. The MX node 461 can remove messages stored in the local buffer that each has a time of publication that has exceeded a predetermined time period. For instance, the MX node 461 can remove messages (stored in the local buffer) with respective times of publication exceeding 3 minutes. In some implementations, the predetermined time period for keeping messages in the local buffer on MX node 461 can be the same as or similar to the time-to-live duration of a streamlet in the channel foo's channel stream, since at a given moment, messages retrieved from the channel's stream do not include those in streamlets having respective times-to-live that had already expired.

The messages retrieved from the channel stream 431 and sent to the subscriber 480 (by the MX node 461) are arranged in the same order as the messages were stored in the channel stream, although other arrangements or ordering of the messages are possible. For instance, messages published to the channel foo are serialized and stored in the streamlet 4102 in a particular order (e.g., M27, M31, M29, M30, and so on), then stored subsequently in the streamlet 4103 and the streamlet 4104. The MX node retrieves messages from the channel stream 431 and provides the retrieved messages to the subscriber 480 in the same order as the messages are stored in the channel stream: M27, M31, M29, M30, and so on, followed by ordered messages in the streamlet 4103, and followed by ordered messages in the streamlet 4104.

Instead of retrieving all available messages in the channel stream 431, the MX node 461 can request a read grant for messages stored in the channel stream 431 starting from a message at particular position, e.g., position 47202. For instance, the position 47202 can correspond to an earlier time instance (e.g., 10 seconds before the current time) when the subscriber 480 was last subscribing to the channel foo (e.g., via a connection to the MX node 461 or another MX node of the messaging system 100). The MX node 461 can send to the configuration manager 214 a request for a read grant for messages starting at the position 47202. Based on the request, the configuration manager 214 provides the MX node 461 a read grant to the streamlet 4104 (on the Q node 474) and a position on the streamlet 4104 that corresponds to the channel stream position 47202. The MX node 461 can retrieve messages in the streamlet 4104 starting from the provided position, and send the retrieved messages to the subscriber 480.

As described above in reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B, messages published to the channel foo are serialized and stored in the channel's streamlets in a particular order. The configuration manager 214 maintains the ordered sequence of streamlets as they are created throughout their respective times-to-live. Messages retrieved from the streamlets by an MX node (e.g., MX node 461, or MX node 468) and provided to a subscriber can be, in some implementations, in the same order as the messages are stored in the ordered sequence of streamlets. In this way, messages sent to different subscribers (e.g., subscriber 480, subscriber 482, or subscriber 485) can be in the same order (as the messages are stored in the streamlets), regardless which MX nodes the subscribers are connected to.

In various implementations, a streamlet stores messages in a set of blocks of messages. Each block stores a number of messages. For instance, a block can store two hundred kilobytes of messages (although other sizes of blocks of messages are possible). Each block has its own time-to-live, which can be shorter than the time-to-live of the streamlet holding the block. Once a block's TTL has expired, the block can be discarded from the streamlet holding the block, as described in more detail below in reference to FIG. 4C.

FIG. 4C is an example data structure for storing messages of a channel of a messaging system. As described with the channel foo in reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B, assume that at the current moment the channel foo's channel stream 432 includes active streamlets 4104 and 4105, as shown in FIG. 4C. Streamlet 4103 and streamlets before 4103 are invalid, as their respective TTLs have expired. The streamlet 4104 is already full for its capacity (e.g., as determined by a corresponding write grant) and is closed for additional message writes. The streamlet 4104 is still available for message reads. The streamlet 4105 is open and is available for message writes and reads.

By way of illustration, the streamlet 4104 (e.g., a computing process running on the Q node 474 shown in FIG. 4B) currently holds two blocks of messages. Block 494 holds messages from channel positions 47301 to 47850. Block 495 holds messages from channel positions 47851 to 48000. The streamlet 4105 (e.g., a computing process running on another Q node in the messaging system 100) currently holds two blocks of messages. Block 496 holds messages from channel positions 48001 to 48200. Block 497 holds messages starting from channel position 48201, and still accepts additional messages of the channel foo.

When the streamlet 4104 was created (e.g., by a write grant), a first block (sub-buffer) 492 was created to store messages, e.g., from channel positions 47010 to 47100. Later on, after the block 492 had reached its capacity, another block 493 was created to store messages, e.g., from channel positions 47111 to 47300. Blocks 494 and 495 were subsequently created to store additional messages. Afterwards, the streamlet 4104 was closed for additional message writes, and the streamlet 4105 was created with additional blocks for storing additional messages of the channel foo.

In this example, the respective TTL's of blocks 492 and 493 had expired. The messages stored in these two blocks (from channel positions 47010 to 47300) are no longer available for reading by subscribers of the channel foo. The streamlet 4104 can discard these two expired blocks, e.g., by de-allocating the memory space for the blocks 492 and 493. The blocks 494 or 495 could become expired and be discarded by the streamlet 4104, before the streamlet 4104 itself becomes invalid. Alternatively, streamlet 4104 itself could become invalid before the blocks 494 or 495 become expired. In this way, a streamlet can hold one or more blocks of messages, or contain no block of messages, depending on respective TTLs of the streamlet and blocks, for example.

A streamlet, or a computing process running on a Q node in the messaging system 100, can create a block for storing messages of a channel by allocating a certain size of memory space from the Q node. The streamlet can receive, from an MX node in the messaging system 100, one message at a time and store the received message in the block. Alternatively, the MX node can assemble (i.e., buffer) a group of messages and send the group of messages to the Q node. The streamlet can allocate a block of memory space (from the Q node) and store the group of messages in the block. The MX node can also perform compression on the group of messages, e.g., by removing a common header from each message or performing other suitable compression techniques.

As described above, a streamlet (a data buffer) residing on a Q node stores messages of a channel in the messaging system 100. To prevent failure of the Q node (a single point failure) that can cause messages being lost, the messaging system 100 can replicate messages on multiple Q nodes, as described in more detail below.

FIG. 5A is a data flow diagram of an example method 500 for publishing and replicating messages of the messaging system 100. As described earlier in reference to FIG. 4A, the MX node 204 receives messages (of the channel foo) from the publishers 406. The configuration manager 214 can instruct the MX Node 204 (e.g., with a write grant) to store the messages in the streamlet 4102 on the Q node 208. In FIG. 5A, instead of storing the messages on a single node (e.g., Q node 208), the configuration manager 214 allocates multiple Q nodes to store multiple copies of the streamlet 4102 on these Q nodes.

By way of illustration, the configuration manager 214 allocates Q nodes 208, 502, 504, and 506 in the messaging system 100 to store copies of the streamlet 4102. The configuration manager 214 instructs the MX node 204 to transmit the messages for the channel foo (e.g., messages M27, M31, M29, M30, and M28) to the Q node 208 (512). A computing process running on the Q node 208 stores the messages in the first copy (copy #1) of the streamlet 4102. Instead of sending an acknowledgement message to the MX node 204 after storing the messages, the Q node 208 forwards the messages to the Q node 502 (514). A computing process running on the Q node 502 stores the messages in another copy (copy #2) of the streamlet 4102. Meanwhile, the Q node 502 forwards the messages to the Q node 504 (516). A computing process running on the Q node 504 stores the messages in yet another copy (copy #3) of the streamlet 4102. The Q node 504 also forwards the message to the Q node 506 (518). A computing process running on the Q node 506 stores the messages in yet another copy (copy #4) of the streamlet 4102. The Q node 506 can send an acknowledgement message to the MX node 204, indicating that all the messages (M27, M31, M29, M30, and M28) have been stored successfully in streamlet copies #1, #2, #3 and #4.

In some implementations, after successfully storing the last copy (copy #4), the Q node 506 can send an acknowledgement to its upstream Q node (504), which in turns sends an acknowledgement to its upstream Q node (502), and so on, until the acknowledgement is sent to the Q node 208 storing the first copy (copy #1). The Q node 208 can send an acknowledgement message to the MX node 204, indicating that all messages have been stored successfully in the streamlet 4102 (i.e., in the copies #1, #2, #3 and #4).

In this way, four copies of the streamlet 4102 (and each message in the streamlet) are stored in four different Q nodes. Other numbers (e.g., two, three, five, or other suitable number) of copies of a streamlet are also possible. In the present illustration, the four copies form a chain of copies including a head copy in the copy #1 and a tail copy in the copy #4. When a new message is published to the streamlet 4102, the message is first stored in the head copy (copy #1) on the Q node 208. The message is then forwarded downstream to the next adjacent copy, the copy #2 on the Q node 502 for storage, then to the copy #3 on the Q node 504 for storage, until the message is stored in the tail copy the copy #4 on the Q node 506.

In addition to storing and forwarding by messages, the computing processes running on Q nodes that store copies of a streamlet can also store and forward messages by blocks of messages, as described earlier in reference to FIG. 4C. For instance, the computing process storing the copy #1 of the streamlet 4102 on Q node 208 can allocate memory and store a block of, for example, 200 kilobytes of messages (although other sizes of blocks of messages are possible), and forward the block of messages to the next adjacent copy (copy #2) of the chain for storage, and so on, until the block messages is stored in the tail copy (copy #4) on the Q node 506.

Messages of the streamlet 4102 can be retrieved and delivered to a subscriber of the channel foo from one of the copies of the streamlet 4102. FIG. 5B is a data flow diagram of an example method 550 for retrieving stored messages in the messaging system 100. For instance, the subscriber 480 can send a request for subscribing to messages of the channel to the MX node 461, as described earlier in reference to FIG. 4B. The configuration manager 214 can provide to the MX node 461 a read grant for one of the copies of the streamlet 4102. The MX node 461 can retrieve messages of the streamlet 4102 from one of the Q nodes storing a copy of the streamlet 4102, and provide the retrieved messages to the subscriber 480. For instance, the MX node 461 can retrieve messages from the copy #4 (the tail copy) stored on the Q node 506 (522). As for another example, the MX node 461 can retrieve messages from the copy #2 stored on the Q node 502 (524). In this way, the multiple copies of a streamlet (e.g., copies #1, #2, #3, and #4 of the streamlet 4102) provide replication and redundancy against failure if only one copy of the streamlet were stored in the messaging system 100. In various implementations, the configuration manager 214 can balance workloads among the Q nodes storing copies of the streamlet 4102 by directing the MX node 461 (e.g., with a read grant) to a particular Q node that has, for example, less current read and write grants as compared to other Q nodes storing copies of the streamlet 4102.

A Q node storing a particular copy in a chain of copies of a streamlet may fail, e.g., a computing process on the Q node storing the particular copy may freeze. Other failure modes of a Q node are possible. An MX node can detect a failed node (e.g., from non-responsiveness of the failed node) and report the failed node to a configuration manager in the messaging system 100 (e.g., configuration manager 214). A peer Q node can also detect a failed Q node and report the failed node to the configuration manager. For instance, an upstream Q node may detect a failed downstream Q node when the downstream Q node is non-responsive, e.g., fails to acknowledge a message storage request from the upstream Q node as described earlier. It is noted that failure of a Q node storing a copy of a particular streamlet of a particular channel stream does not have to be for publish or subscribe operations of the particular streamlet or of the particular channel stream. Failure stemming from operations on another streamlet or another channel stream can also alert a configuration manager about failure of a Q node in the messaging system 100.

When a Q node storing a particular copy in a chain of copies of a streamlet fails, a configuration manager in the messaging system 100 can repair the chain by removing the failed node, or by inserting a new node for a new copy into the chain, for example. FIGS. 5C and 5D are data flow diagrams of example methods for repairing a chain of copies of a streamlet in the messaging system 100. In FIG. 5C, for instance, after detecting that the Q node 504 fails, the configuration manager 214 can repair the chain of copies by redirecting messages intended to be stored in the copy #3 of the streamlet 4102 on the Q node 502 to the copy #4 of the streamlet 4102 on the Q node 506. In this example, a message (or a block of messages) is first sent from the MX node 204 to the Q node 208 for storage in the copy #1 of the streamlet 4102 (572). The message then is forwarded to the Q node 502 for storage in the copy #2 of the streamlet 4102 (574). The message is then forwarded to the Q node 506 for storage in the copy #4 of the streamlet 4102 (576). The Q node 506 can send an acknowledgement message to the configuration manager 214 indicating that the message has been stored successfully.

Here, a failed node can also be the node storing the head copy or the tail copy of the chain of copies. For instance, if the Q node 208 fails, the configuration manager 214 can instruct the MX node 204 first to send the message to the Q node 502 for storage in the copy #2 of the streamlet 4102. The message is then forwarded to the next adjacent copy in the chain for storage, until the message is stored in the tail copy.

If the Q node 506 fails, the configuration manager 214 can repair the chain of copies of the streamlet 4102 such that the copy #3 on the Q node 504 becomes the tail copy of the chain. A message is first stored in the copy #1 on the Q node 208, then subsequently stored in the copy #2 on the Q node 502, and the copy #3 on the Q node 504. The Q node 504 then can send an acknowledgement message to the configuration manager 214 indicating that the message has been stored successfully.

In FIG. 5D, the configuration manager 214 replaces the failed node Q node 504 by allocating a new Q node 508 to store a copy #5 of the chain of copies of the streamlet 4102. In this example, the configuration manager 214 instructs the MX node 204 to send a message (from the publishers 406) to the Q node 208 for storage in the copy #1 of the streamlet 4102 (582). The message is then forwarded to the Q node 502 for storage in the copy #2 of the streamlet 4102 (584). The message is then forwarded to the Q node 508 for storage in the copy #5 of the streamlet 4012 (586). The message is then forwarded to the Q node 506 for storage in the copy #4 of the streamlet 4102 (588). The Q node 506 can send an acknowledgement message to the configuration manager 214 indicating that the message has been stored successfully.

FIG. 6 is a data flow diagram 600 illustrating the application of selective filtering, searching, transforming, querying, aggregating and transforming of messages in real time to manage the delivery of messages into and through each channel and on to individual subscribers. Users operating applications on client devices, such as, for example, smartphones, tablets, and other internet-connected devices, act as subscribers (e.g., subscriber 480 in FIG. 4B, subscriber 602 in FIG. 6). The applications may be, for example, consumers of the messages to provide real-time information about news, transportation, sports, weather, or other subjects that rely on published messages attributed to one or more subjects and/or channels. Message publishers 604 can be any internet-connected service that provides, for example, status data, transactional data or other information that is made available to the subscribers 602 on a subscription basis. In some versions, the relationship between publishers and channels is 1:1, that is there is one and only one publisher that provides messages into that particular channel. In other instances, the relationship may be many-to-one (more than one publisher provides messages into a channel), one-to-many (a publisher's messages are sent to more than one channel), or many-to-many (more than one publisher provides messages to more than one channel). Typically, when a subscriber subscribes to a channel, they receive all messages and all message data published to the channel as soon as it is published. The result, however, is that many subscribers can receive more data (or data that requires further processing) than is useful. The additional filtering or application of functions against the data places undue processing requirements on the subscriber application and can delay presentation of the data in its preferred format.

A filter 606 can be created by providing suitable query instructions at, for example, the time the subscriber 602 subscribes to the channel 608. The filter 606 that is specified can be applied to all messages published to the channel 608 (e.g., one message at a time), and can be evaluated before the subscriber 602 receives the messages (e.g., see block 2 in FIG. 6). By allowing subscribers 602 to create query instructions a priori, that is upon subscribing to the channel 608 and before data is received into the channel 608, the burden of filtering and processing messages moves closer to the data source, and can be managed at the channel level. As a result, the messages are pre-filtered and/or pre-processed before they are forwarded to the subscriber 602. Again, the query instructions need not be based on any a priori knowledge of the form or substance of the incoming messages. The query instructions can be used to pre-process data for applications such as, for example, real-time monitoring services (for transportation, healthcare, news, sports, weather, etc.) and dashboards (e.g., industrial monitoring applications, financial markets, etc.) to filter data, summarize data and/or detect anomalies. One or more filters 606 can be applied to each channel 608.

The query instructions can implement real-time searches and queries, aggregate or summarize data, or transform data for use by a subscriber application. In some embodiments, including those implementing JSON formatted messages, the messages can be generated, parsed and interpreted using the query instructions, and the lack of a pre-defined schema (unlike conventional RDBMS/SQL-based applications) means that the query instructions can adapt to changing business needs without the need for schema or application layer changes. This allows the query instructions to be applied selectively at the message level within a channel, thus filtering and/or aggregating messages within the channel. In some instances, the queries may be applied at the publisher level—meaning channels that receive messages from more than one publisher may apply certain filters against messages from specific publishers. The query instructions may be applied on a going-forward basis, that is on only newly arriving messages, and/or in some cases, the query instructions may be applied to historical messages already residing in the channel queue.

The query instructions can be applied at either or both of the ingress and egress side of the PubSub service. On the egress side, the query instructions act as a per-connection filter against the message channels, and allows each subscriber to manage their own set of unique filters. On the ingress side, the query instructions operate as a centralized, system-wide filter that is applied to all published messages.

For purposes of illustration and not limitation, examples of query instructions that may be applied during message ingress include:

-   -   A message may be distributed to multiple channels or to a         different channel (e.g., based on geo-location in the message,         or based on a hash function of some value in the message).     -   A message may be dropped due to spam filtering or DoS rules         (e.g., limiting the number of messages a publisher can send in a         given time period).     -   An alert message may be sent to an admin channel on some event         arriving at any channel (e.g., cpu_temp>threshold).

For purposes of illustration and not limitation, examples of query instructions that may be applied during message egress include:

-   -   Channels that contain events from various sensors where the user         is only interested in a subset of the data sources.     -   Simple aggregations, where a system reports real time events,         such as cpu usage, sensor temperatures, etc., and we would like         to receive some form of aggregation over a short time period,         irrespective of the number of devices reporting or the reporting         frequency, e.g., average(cpu_load), max(temperature),         count(number_of_users), count(number_of_messages) group by         country.     -   Transforms, where a system reports real time events and metadata         is added to them from mostly static external tables, e.g.,         adding a city name based on IP address, converting an         advertisement ID to a marketing campaign ID or to a marketing         partner ID.     -   Adding default values to event streams where such values do not         exist on certain devices.     -   Advanced aggregations, where a system reports real time events,         and combines some mostly static external tables data into the         aggregation in real time, e.g., grouping advertisement clicks by         partners and counting number of events.     -   Counting number of user events, grouping by a/b test cell         allocation.

In some embodiments, the query instructions may be used to define an index or other suitable temporary data structure, which may then be applied against the messages as they are received into the channel to allow for the reuse of the data element(s) as searchable elements. In such cases, a query frequency may be maintained to describe the number of times (general, or in a given period) that a particular data element is referred to or how that element is used. If the frequency that the data element is used in a query exceeds some threshold, the index may be stored for subsequent use on incoming messages, whereas in other instances in which the index is used only once (or infrequently) it may be discarded. In some instances, the query instruction may be applied to messages having arrived at the channel prior to the creation of the index. Thus, the messages are not indexed according to the data elements described in the query instructions but processed using the query instructions regardless, whereas messages arriving after the creation of the index may be filtered and processed using the index. For queries or other subscriptions that span the time at which the index may have been created, the results of applying the query instructions to the messages as they are received and processed with the index may be combined with results of applying the query instructions to non-indexed messages received prior to receipt of the query instructions.

For purposes of illustration and not limitation, one use case for such a filtering application is a mapping application that subscribes to public transportation data feeds, such as the locations of all buses across a city. The published messages may include, for example, geographic data describing the location, status, bus agency, ID number, route number, and route name of the buses. Absent pre-defined query instructions, the client application would receive individual messages for all buses. However, query instructions may be provided that filter out, for example, inactive routes and buses and aggregate, for example, a count of buses by agency. The subscriber application receives the filtered bus data in real time and can create reports, charts and other user-defined presentations of the data. When new data is published to the channel, the reports can be updated in real time based on a period parameter (described in more detail below).

The query instructions can be provided (e.g., at the time the subscriber subscribes to the channel) in any suitable format or syntax. For example, the following illustrates the structure of several fields of a sample subscription request Protocol Data Unit (PDU) with the PDU keys specific to adding a filter to a subscription request:

{    ″action″: ″subscribe″,    “body”: {       ″channel″: “ChannelName”       ″filter″: “QueryInstructions”       ″period″: [1-60, OPTIONAL]    } }

In the above subscription request PDU, the “channel” field can be a value (e.g., string or other appropriate value or designation) for the name of the channel to which the subscriber wants to subscribe. The “filter” field can provide the query instructions or other suitable filter commands, statements, or syntax that define the type of key/values in the channel message to return to the subscriber. The “period” parameter specifies the time period in, for example, seconds, to retain messages before returning them to the subscriber (e.g., an integer value from 1 to 60, with a default of, for example, 1). The “period” parameter will be discussed in more detail below. It is noted that a subscription request PDU can include any other suitable fields, parameters, or values.

One example of a query instruction is a “select” filter, which selects the most recent (or “top”) value for all (e.g., “select.*”) or selected (e.g., “select.name”) data elements. In the example below, the Filter column shows the filter value sent in the query instructions as part of a subscription as the filter field. The Message Data column lists the input of the channel message data and the message data sent to the client as output. In this example, the value for the “extra” key does not appear in the output, as the “select” filter can return only the first level of results and does not return any nested key values.

Filter Message Data SELECT * Input {“name”: “art”, “eye”: “blue”}, {“name”: “art”, “age”: 11}, {“age”: 12, “height”: 190} Output {“name”: “art”, “age”: 12, “eye”: “blue”, “height”: 190} SELECT top.* Input {“top”: {“age”: 12, “eyes”: “blue”}}, {“top”: {“name”: “joy”, “height”: 168}, “extra”: 1}, {“top”: {“name”: “art”}} Output {“name”: “art”, “age”: 12, “eye”: “blue”, “height”: 168}

For aggregative functions, all messages can be combined that satisfy the query instructions included in the GROUP BY clause. The aggregated values can then be published as a single message to the subscriber(s) at the end of the aggregation period. The number of messages that are aggregated depends on, for example, the number of messages received in the channel in the period value for the filter. For instance, if the period parameter is set to 1, and 100 messages are received in one second, all 100 messages are aggregated into a single message for transmission to the subscsriber(s). As an example, a query instruction as shown below includes a filter to aggregate position data for an object, grouping it by obj_id, with a period of 1:

SELECT * WHERE (<expression with aggregate function>) GROUP BY obj_id

In this example, all messages published in the previous second with the same obj_id are grouped and sent as a batch to the subscriber(s).

In some embodiments, a MERGE(*) function can be used to change how aggregated message data is merged. The MERGE(*) function can return a recursive union of incoming messages over a period of time. The merge function may be used, for example, to track location data for an object, and the subscriber is interested in the most recent values for all key/value pairs contained in a set of aggregated messages. The following statement shows an exemplary syntax for the MERGE(*) function:

-   -   SELECT [expr] [name,]MERGE(*)[.*] [AS name] [FROM expr] [WHERE         expr] [HAVING expr] GROUP BY name

The following examples illustrate how the MERGE(*) function may be applied within query instructions to various types of channel messages. In the following examples, the Filter column shows the filter value included in the query instructions as part of a subscription request as the FILTER field. The Message Data column lists the Input channel message data and the resulting message data sent to the subscriber as Output. The filter returns the most recent values of the keys identified in the input messages, with the string MERGE identified as the column name in the output message data. The first example below shows the MERGE(*) function in a filter with a wildcard, for the message data is returned using the keys from the input as column names in the output.

Filter Message Data SELECT Input MERGE(*) {“name”: “art”, “age”: 10}, {“name”: “art”, “age”: 11, “items”: [0]} Output {“MERGE”: {“name”: “art”, “age”: 11, “items”: [0]}} The next example illustrates the use of the MERGE(*) function in a filter using a wildcard and the “AS” statement with a value of MERGE. The output data includes MERGE as the column name.

Filter Message Data SELECT MERGE(*).* Input {  “name”: “art”,  “age”: 12,  “items”: [0],  “skills”: {   “work”: [“robots”]  } }, {  “name”: “art”,  “age”: 13,  “items”: [“car”],  “skills”: {   “home”: [“cooking”]  } } Output {  “name”: “art”,  “age”: 13,  “items”: [“car”],  “skills”: {   “work”: [“robots”],   “home”: [“cooking”]  } } SELECT MERGE(top.*) AS Input merge {“top”: { }, “garbage”: 0}, {“top”: {“name”: “art”, “eyes”: “blue”}}, {“top”: {“name”: “joy”, “height”: 170}} Output {“merge”: {“name”: “joy”, “eyes”: “blue”, “height”: 170}}

Generally, for aggregative functions and for filters that only include a SELECT(expr) statement, only the latest value for any JSON key in the message data from the last message received can be stored and returned. Therefore, if the most recent message received that satisfies the filter statement is missing a key value identified in a previously processed message, that value is not included in the aggregate, which could result in data loss. However, filters that also include the MERGE(*) function can retain the most recent value for all keys that appear in messages to an unlimited JSON object depth. Accordingly, the most recent version of all key values can be retained in the aggregate.

The MERGE(*) function can be used to ensure that associated values for all keys that appear in any message during the aggregation period also appear in the final aggregated message. For example, a channel may track the physical location of an object in three dimensions: x, y, and z. During an aggregation period of one second, two messages are published to the channel, one having only two parameters: OBJ{x:1, y:2, z:3} and OBJ{x:2, y:3}. In the second message, the z value did not change and was not included in the second message. Without the MERGE(*) function, the output result would be OBJ{x:2, y:3}. Because the z value was not present in the last message in the aggregation period, the z value was not included in the final aggregate. However, with the MERGE(*) function, the result is OBJ{x:2, y:3, z:3}.

The following table shows one set of rules that may be used to aggregate data in messages, depending on the type of data. For arrays, elements need not be merged, but instead JSON values can be overwritten for the array in the aggregate with the last array value received.

Type of JSON Data to Aggregate Without With Data {msg1}, {msg2} MERGE(*) MERGE(*) Additional {a: 1, b: 2}, {c: 3} {c: 3} {a: 1, b: 2, key/value c: 3} Different value {a: 2}, {a: “2”} {a: “2”} {a: “2”} datatype Missing key/value {a: 2}, { } {a: 2} {a: 2} null value {a: 2}, {a: null} {a: null} {a: null} Different key {a: {b: 1}}, {a: {c: 2}} {a: {c: 2}} {a: {b: 1, value c: 2}} Arrays {a: [1, 2]}, {a: [3, 4]} {a: [3, 4]} {a: [3, 4]}

The query instructions can be comprised of one or more suitable filter commands, statements, functions, or syntax. For purposes of illustration and not limitation, in addition to the SELECT and MERGE functions, the query instructions can include filter statements or functions, such as, for example, ABS(expr), AVG(expr), COALESCE(a[, b . . . ]), CONCAT(a[, b . . . ]), COUNT(expr), COUNT_DISTINCT(expr), IFNULL(expr1, expr2), JSON(expr), MIN(expr[, expr1, . . . ]), MAX(expr[, expr1, . . . ]), SUBSTR(expr, expr1[, expr2]), SUM(expr), MD5(expr), SHA1(expr), FIRST_VALUE(expr) OVER (ORDER BY expr1), and/or LAST_VALUE(expr) OVER (ORDER BY expr1), where “expr” can be any suitable expression that is capable of being processed by a filter statement or function, such as, for example, a SQL or SQL-like expression. Other suitable filter commands, statements, functions, or syntax are possible for the query instructions.

According to the present invention, non-filtered queries can translate to an immediate copy of the message to the subscriber, without any JSON or other like processing. Queries that include a SELECT filter command (without aggregation) can translate into an immediate filter. In instances in which the messages are formatted using JSON, each message may be individually parsed and any WHERE clause may be executed directly on the individual message as it arrives, without the need for creating indices or other temporary data structures. If the messages pass the WHERE clause filter, the SELECT clause results in a filtered message that can be converted back to its original format or structure (e.g., JSON) and sent to the subscriber.

Aggregative functions, such as, for example, COUNT( ), SUM( ), AVG( ), and the like, can translate into an immediate aggregator. In instances in which the messages are formatted using JSON, each message may be individually parsed and any WHERE clause may be executed directly on the individual message as it arrives, without the need for creating indices or other temporary data structures. If a WHERE clause is evaluated, messages passing such criteria are aggregated (e.g., aggregates in the SELECT clause are executed, thereby accumulating COUNT, SUM, AVG, and so forth) using the previous accumulated value and the value from the individual message. Once per aggregation period (e.g., every 1 second), the aggregates are computed (e.g., AVG=SUM/COUNT), and the SELECT clause outputs the aggregated message, which can be converted to its original format or structure (e.g., JSON) and sent to the subscriber.

More complex aggregative functions, such as, for example, GROUP BY, JOIN, HAVING, and the like, can be translated into a hash table aggregator. Unlike SELECT or other like functions that can use a constant memory, linearly expanding memory requirements can be dependent upon the results of the GROUP BY clause. At most, grouping by a unique value (e.g., SSN, etc.) can result in a group for each individual message, but in most cases grouping by a common data element (e.g., user_id or other repeating value) can result in far fewer groups. In practice, each message is parsed (from its JSON format, for example). The WHERE clause can be executed directly on the individual message as it arrives, without creating indices or other temporary structures. If the WHERE clause is satisfied, the GROUP BY expressions can be computed directly and used to build a hash key for the group. The aggregative functions in the SELECT clause can be executed, accumulating COUNT, SUM, AVG, or other functions using the previous accumulated value specific for the hash key (group) and the value from the individual message. Once per aggregation period (e.g., every 1 second), the aggregates are computed (e.g., AVG=SUM/COUNT) for each hash key (group), and the SELECT clause can output the aggregated message for each hash key to be converted back to its original format or structure (e.g., JSON) and sent to the subscriber (e.g., one message per hash key (group)).

In embodiments in which the aggregation period is limited (e.g., 1 second-60 seconds) and the network card or other hardware/throughput speeds may be limited (e.g., 10/gbps), the overall maximal memory consumption can be calculated as time*speed (e.g., 1 GB per second, or 60 GB per minute). Hence, the upper bound is independent of the number of subscribers. In certain implementations, each message only need be parsed once (e.g., if multiple filters are set by multiple clients) and only if needed based on the query instructions, as an empty filter does not require parsing the message.

Referring to FIG. 7A, subscriptions can include a “period” parameter, generally defined in, for example, seconds and in some embodiments can range from 1 to 60 seconds, although other time increments and time ranges are possible. The period parameter(s) can be purely sequential (e.g., ordinal) and/or time-based (e.g., temporal) and included in the self-described data and therefore available for querying, aggregation, and the like. For example, FIG. 7A illustrates the filter process according to the present invention for the first three seconds with a period of 1 second. In the present example, the subscription starts at t=0. The filter created from the query instructions is applied against all messages received during each 1-second period (e.g., one message at a time). The results for each period are then batched and forwarded to the subscriber. Depending on the query instructions used, the messages can be aggregated using the aggregation functions discussed previously before the message data is sent to the subscriber.

In some cases, the process defaults to sending only new, incoming messages that meet the query instructions on to the subscriber. However, a subscriber can subscribe with history and use a filter, such that the first message or messages sent to the subscriber can be the historical messages with the filter applied. Using the period of max_age and/or a “next” parameter provides additional functionality that allows for retrieval and filtering of historical messages.

More particularly, a max_age parameter included with the query instructions can facilitate the retrieval of historical messages that meet this parameter. FIG. 7B illustrates an example of a max_age parameter of 2 seconds (with a period of 1 second) that is provided with the query instructions. The filter created from the query instructions is applied to the historical messages from the channel that arrived from t−2 through t=0 (t=0 being the time the subscription starts), and to the messages that arrived in the first period (from t=0 to t+1). These messages can be sent in a single batch to the subscriber (as Group 1). The filter is applied to each message in each subsequent period (e.g., from t+1 to t+2 as Group 2) to batch all messages that meet the query instructions within that period. Each batch is then forwarded on to the subscriber.

When a subscriber subscribes with a “next” parameter to a channel with a filter, the filter can be applied to all messages from the next value up to the current message stream position for the channel, and the results can be sent to the subscriber in, for example, a single batch. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7C, a next parameter is included with the query instructions (with a period of 1 second). The next parameter instructs the process to apply the filter created from the query instructions to each message from the “next position” up through the current stream position (e.g., up to t=0) and to the messages that arrived in the first period (from t=0 to t+1). These messages can be sent in a single batch to the subscriber (as Group 1). The filter is applied to each message in each subsequent period (e.g., from t+1 to t+2 as Group 2) to batch all messages that meet the query instructions within that period. Each batch is then forwarded on the subscriber.

When a subscriber subscribes with a next parameter, chooses to receive historical messages on a channel, and includes a filter in the subscription, the subscriber can be updated to the current message stream position in multiple batches. FIG. 7D illustrates an example of a max_age parameter of 2 seconds (with a period of 1 second) and a next parameter that can be combined into one set of query instructions. The filter created from the query instructions is applied to the historical messages from the channel that arrived from the end of the history to the “next” value of the subscription (i.e., from 2 seconds before the next value up to the next value), to the messages from the next value to the current stream position (e.g., up to t=0), and to the messages that arrived in the first period (from t=0 to t+1). These messages can be sent in a single batch to the subscriber (as Group 1). The filter is applied to each message in each subsequent period (e.g., from t+1 to t+2 as Group 2) to batch all messages that meet the query instructions within that period. Each batch is then forwarded on the subscriber. Consequently, historical messages can be combined with messages that start at a particular period indicator and batched for transmission to the subscriber.

The query instructions can define how one or more filters can be applied to the incoming messages in any suitable manner. For example, the resulting filter(s) can be applied to any or all messages arriving in each period, to any or all messages arriving across multiple periods, to any or all messages arriving in select periods, or to any or all messages arriving on a continuous or substantially continuous basis (i.e., without the use of a period parameter such that messages are not retained before returning them to the subscriber). Such filtered messages can be batched in any suitable manner or sent individually (e.g., one message at a time) to subscribers. In particular, the filtered messages can be sent to the subscriber in any suitable format or syntax. For example, the following illustrates the structure of several fields of a sample channel PDU that contains the message results from a filter request:

{    ″action″: ″channel/data″,    “body”: {       ″channel″: ChannelName       ″next″: ChannelStreamPosition       ″messages″: [ChannelData]+   // Can be one or       more messages    } } In the above channel PDU, the “channel” field can be a value (e.g., string or other appropriate value or designation) of the channel name to which the subscriber has subscribed. The “next” field can provide the channel stream position of the batch of messages returned in the channel PDU. The “messages” field provides the channel data of the messages resulting from application of the specified filter. One or more messages can be returned in the “messages” field in such a channel PDU. It is noted that a channel PDU can include any other suitable fields, parameters, values, or data.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an example method 800 for applying query instructions to published messages for publishers and subscribers of a messaging system. The method 800 can be implemented using, for example, an MX node (e.g., MX node 204, MX node 461) and a Q node (e.g., Q node 212, Q node 208) of the messaging system 100, for example. The method 800 begins by receiving query instructions from one or more subscribers (block 802). The one or more subscribers are subscribed to a channel of a plurality of channels. The query instructions may be cached and implemented in real-time, or, in some instances, stored at the respective message nodes (e.g., MX node 204). Messages are received from one or more publishers (block 804). Each message is associated with a particular one of the plurality of channels. The query instructions are then applied to the messages for the channel as the messages are received (block 806). The messages resulting from the application of the query instructions are sent to the corresponding subscribers (block 808). The messages received by the subscribers from the channel are thereby limited to those that satisfy the query instructions.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example system architecture 900 that may be used to adjust the cost of assets. The system architecture 900 may also publish messages indicating updated costs for the assets. The system architecture 900 may analyze consumption data to determine the updated costs for the assets, as discussed in more detail below. The system architecture 900 includes a management component 910, a messaging system 920, client devices 932, display components 942, supply components 952, transaction components 962, data store 970, and assets 982. The messaging system 920 may support the PubSub communication pattern, as described earlier in reference to FIGS. 1A through 8. The messaging system 920 may be referred to as a PubSub system or a PubSub messaging system. The messaging system 920 includes channels 921A through 921Z, although any suitable number of channels can be supported by the messaging system 920. The messages published to channels 921A through 921Z (e.g., channel streams) may be divided into streamlets which may be stored within Q nodes of the messaging system 920, as described earlier in reference to FIGS. 1A through 8. C nodes of the messaging system 920 may be used to offload data transfers from one or more Q nodes (e.g., to cache some of the streamlets stored in the Q nodes). Client devices 932 may establish respective persistent connections (e.g., TCP connections) to one or more MX nodes. The one or more MX nodes may serve as termination points for these connections, as described earlier in reference to FIGS. 1A through 8. A configuration manager (e.g., illustrated in FIG. 2) may allow client devices 932 to subscribe to channels and to publish to channels. For example, the configuration manager may authenticate client devices 932 to determine whether client devices 932 are allowed to subscribe to a channel.

In one embodiment, the messages that are published or received via the channels 921A through 921Z may be data associated with assets 982 (e.g., information that may identify an asset 980) and the consumption of assets (e.g., information indicating the rate of consumption of the amount of an asset that has been consumed, etc.). Each message may be stored in a respective buffer for the channel associated with the message. The messages in the respective buffer may be stored according to an order, as discussed above. For example, messages in a buffer may be stored in the order in which the messages were published to a respective channel. Each buffer may have an expiration time based on when the buffer was allocated to a respective channel, as discussed above. The messaging system 920 may retrieve messages for the particular channel from one or more buffers allocated to the channel that have not expired and according to the order. In some embodiments, the messaging system 920 may be a real-time messaging system, as discussed above.

Data store 970 may be one or more devices that may store data which may be accessed by other devices or components of the system architecture 900. For example, the data store 970 may be a combination of a database, a storage drive, a memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), flash memory, a cache, a server computer, a desktop computer, etc. The data store 970 may store consumption data, user account information, costs of assets (e.g., base costs, adjusted costs, etc.), and inventory counts (e.g., the amount of an asset 980 that are available for consumption or are stored in inventor), as discussed in more detail below.

As discussed above, organizations or entities, such as retail businesses, stores, shops, restaurants, coffee shops, markets/grocery stores, etc., may generally use separate disconnected systems to track and manage the assets 982 provided by the organization to various users (e.g., to customers). An asset 980 may be physical item such as products, inventory, materials that are used to create other assets, etc. Users may consume an asset 980 by using, purchasing, or renting an asset. For example, a user may consume a food item by purchasing the food item from a business. In another example, a user may consume a shirt by purchasing the shirt. It may be difficult to determine how to adjust the cost of an asset. For example, determining that a price of an asset should be increased may be a manual process performed by a manager or administrator (e.g., a store owner). In addition, organizations and entities generally do not factor in expiration dates of assets, the amount of demand for an asset, or the amount of inventory for an asset, when determining the cost for an asset.

The embodiments, examples, and implementations described herein allow the system architecture 900 to receive live data regarding the expiration dates of an asset 980 (e.g., illustrated in column 1003 of FIG. 10A), the amount of demand for an asset 980, and the amount of inventory for an asset 980. Because the messaging system 920 allows for the delivery of live data related to the consumption and inventory levels of the assets 982, the system architecture 900 is able to use this live data in real-time to adjust the costs of assets. This improves the speed and efficiency for adjusting the costs of assets 982 that may be consumed by various users.

As discussed above, assets 982 may be a physical item that may be consumed by a user, used by a user, or that may be used to create (e.g., manufacture, make, construct, etc.) another asset 980. For example, an asset 980 may be a pair of headphones that may be consumed (e.g., purchased) by a user (e.g., a consumer, a shopper, etc.). In another example, an asset 980 may be milk which may be used to make cappuccinos (e.g., another asset 980). One or more of the assets 982 may be associated with a base cost for consuming the asset. The base cost for consuming the asset may also be referred to as a price or a purchase price. The base cost of an asset 980 may be adjusted to obtain an adjusted cost, as discussed in more detail below. Assets 982 may include different types of items, goods, products, merchandise, etc.

An asset 980 may optionally include a tracking component 981. The tracking component 981 may be hardware, software (e.g., software components, applications, software, apps, software services, etc.), firmware, or a combination thereof. For example, the tracking component 981 may a computing device or a radio-frequency identifier (RFID) tag. In some embodiments, the tracking component 981 may publish data (e.g., messages or other information) associated with the asset 980 to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. For example, the tracking component 981 may periodically publish data to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z (e.g., may publish consumption data every few seconds, every minute, every hour, or some other appropriate period of time). In another example, the tracking component 981 may publish data when the asset 980 is consumed or used (e.g., when the asset 980 is purchased by a customer or when the asset 980 is used to create another asset 980). For example, when a user purchases the asset 980 and the asset 980 is scanned by a transaction component 961 (e.g., a cash register), the tracking component 981 may publish one or more messages that indicate the name, cost, and quantity of the asset 980 that was purchased.

In one embodiment, the transaction component 961 may be an electronic or computing device, such as a server computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a smartphone, etc., hardware, software (e.g., software components, applications, software, apps, software services, etc.), firmware, or a combination thereof. The transaction component 961 may be subscribed to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the transaction component 961 to receive data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) from other components or portions of the system architecture 900. The transaction component 961 may also publish data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the transaction component 961 to transmit or send data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to other components or portions of the system architecture 900.

In one embodiment, the transaction component 961 may allow one or more users to consume one or more assets 982. For example, the transaction component 961 may allow users to purchase, buy, or use (e.g., rent) one or more assets 982. The transaction component 961 may obtain the cost of the asset 980 and may charge the user the cost of the asset 980 (e.g., debit a user's credit card account, bank account, or accept some other form of payment from the user). The cost of the asset 980 may be determined (e.g., calculated, generated, etc.) by the management component 910, as discussed in more detail below. Examples of transaction component 961 may include, but are not limited to, a register, a cash register, a check-out stand, a payment terminal, a point of sale terminal, a computer server that may process online purchases, sales, or rentals of asset 980, or other appropriate devices that may receive and/or process payments for an asset 980.

In one embodiment, the transaction component 961 may publish consumption data to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. Consumption data may indicate various data or information related to the consumption of the assets 982. For example, consumption data may indicate one or more of an identifier for an asset 980 (e.g., make and model number, a name, a serial number, a bar code, a quick response (QR) code, an item number, etc.), an amount of the asset 980 that was consumed (e.g., the number of quantity of the asset 980 that was purchased), the cost for the asset 980 (e.g., the amount that was charged to the customer), a location where the asset 980 was consumed (e.g., the location of a store where the transaction component 961 is located, Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, etc.), an identifier for the transaction component 961 (e.g., an alphanumeric value), a timestamp for the consumption of the asset (e.g., the date and/or time that the asset 980 was consumed), a payment method (e.g., credit card, debit card, cash, digital wallet, etc.), a sales person, etc. The consumption data may also indicate the amount of consumption of an asset 980. For example, the consumption data may indicate how many of an asset 980 have been consumed. The consumption data may also indicate rate of consumption. For example, the consumption data may indicate the amount of an asset 980 that was consumed over a period of time. The consumption data may also indicate the amount of assets 982 that were used to create, manufacture, make, etc., another asset 980. For example, the consumption data may indicate the amount of milk (e.g., a first asset 980) that was used to make a latte (e.g., a second asset 980).

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may be an electronic or computing device, such as a server computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a smartphone, etc., hardware, software (e.g., software components, applications, software, apps, software services, etc.), firmware, or a combination thereof. The management component 910 may be subscribed to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the management component 910 to receive data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) from other components or portions of the system architecture 900. The management component 910 may also publish data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the management component 910 to transmit or send data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to other components or portions of the system architecture 900.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may manage, track, monitor, etc., the amount of assets 982 that are available for consumption (e.g., available for purchase, use, or rental). For example, the management component 910 may determine the inventory, stock, or amount of the various assets 982 that are available for users to consume or use. As discussed above, the transaction component 961 may publish consumption data to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z when one or more assets 982 are consumed. The management component 910 may be subscribed to the one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z and may receive the consumption data. The management component 910 may store the consumption data or portions of the consumption data in the data store 970. The management component 910 may update the inventory, stock, or amount of the various assets 982 based on the consumption data. For example, if the consumption data indicates that a user consumed (e.g., purchased, used, rented, etc.) two assets 982, the management component 910 may decrease the inventory, stock, or amount of assets 982 that are available for other uses

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may manage, track, monitor, etc., the amount of assets 982 that are available for consumption (e.g., available for purchase, use, or rental) for multiple geographical locations (e.g., for multiple stores, shops, malls, kiosks, stands, etc.). For example, users may consume asset 980 at different geographical locations. The management component 910 may update the amount of assets 982 that are available for consumption (e.g., the number of assets 982 that are in stock) at each of the different geographical locations.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may also manage, track, monitor, etc., the amount of different assets 982 that are available for use in creating, manufacturing, or making other assets (e.g., the amount of raw materials that are available). For example, the management component 910 may store data in the data store 970 indicating that a cappuccino (e.g., an asset 980) may be made or created using coffee (e.g., another asset 980) and milk (e.g., a further asset 980). When a cappuccino is sold to a user, the management component 910 may determine the amount of coffee and milk that were used in the cappuccino. The management component 910 may decrease the amount of coffee and milk to reflect the usage of the coffee and milk in the cappuccino.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may determine whether one or more predetermined thresholds are satisfied based on the consumption data. The one or more predetermined thresholds may be used by the management component 910 to determine whether certain actions, operations, methods, functions, etc., related to the assets 982 should be performed.

In one embodiment, one of the predetermined thresholds may be a supply threshold. A supply threshold may indicate a threshold amount, quantity, number, etc., of an asset 980, which indicates that additional quantities of the asset 980 should be obtained. For example, the supply threshold may be a minimum number of an asset 980 that should remain in an inventory or stock of the asset 980. If the amount of the asset 980 is less than the supply threshold, there may not be enough of the asset 980 for consumption (e.g., for purchase) to last a period of time. For example, if the amount of the asset 980 is less than the supply threshold, then users may consume all of the asset 980 within a period of time (e.g., within a day, a week, or some other appropriate period of time) if additional quantities of the asset 980 are not obtained. The supply threshold may also be a minimum number of an asset 980 that may be created, manufactured, made, etc., based on the current available raw materials (e.g., other assets 982) that are available. For example, the supply threshold for milk may be based on a minimum number of cappuccinos that may be made using the milk. In some embodiments, there may be different supply thresholds for different types or categories of assets 982. For example, a first supply threshold may be used for headphones and a second supply threshold may be used for milk. In other embodiments, each geographical location where the assets 982 may be consumed may have different supply thresholds.

In one embodiment, the supply threshold may be determined based on various factors or parameters. For example, the supply threshold may be determined based on one or more of the current inventory or stock of an asset 980 at a geographical location (e.g., a store, a kiosk, a mall, etc.), a prediction or estimate of the number of the asset 980 that will be consumed over a period of time (e.g., an hour, a few days, or some other appropriate period of time), the amount of the asset 980 that may be stored in a warehouse (e.g., a repository, a stockpile, a store, a distribution center, or some other facility that may be used to store larger amounts of the asset 980), the amount of time it may take to ship additional quantities of the asset to a geographical location (e.g., the amount of time to ship or restock an asset 980), etc.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may publish one or more messages indicating that additional quantities of an asset 980 should be obtained (e.g., ordered) when the supply threshold is satisfied (e.g., when the supply threshold is met or reached). For example, the management component 910 may publish a message to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z indicating that the amount of the asset 980 at a geographical location (e.g., a store, a kiosk, etc.) is below the supply threshold and that additional quantities of the asset 980 should be ordered from a warehouse. The message may be received by a manager, administrator, etc., who may order additional quantities of the asset 980 to be delivered at the geographical location. The message may also be received by one or more of the supply components 952, as discussed in more detail below.

In one embodiment, one of the predetermined thresholds may be an expiration threshold. The expiration threshold may indicate a time when an asset 980 should no longer be consumed. For example, an asset 980 may be a perishable item, such as food. The expiration threshold may be a threshold amount of time before the asset 980 expires. For example, milk that may expire in two days or less may satisfy an example expiration threshold of two days. In some embodiments, there may be different expiration thresholds for different types or categories of assets 982. For example, a first expiration threshold may be used for milk and a second expiration threshold may be used for salad. In other embodiments, each geographical location where the assets 982 may be consumed may have different expiration thresholds.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may publish one or more messages indicating that one or more assets 982 will expire within a period of time, based on the expiration threshold. For example, the management component 910 may publish a message to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z indicating a number of gallons of milk will expire within a period of time that is equal to or less than the expiration threshold (e.g., one day, two days, a week, or some other appropriate period of time). The message may also indicate that the gallons of milk that will expire within the period of time should be sold or used first. The message may be received by a manager, administrator, employee, working, etc., who may use or sell the gallons of milk that will expire within the period of time before using or selling other gallons of milk.

In one embodiment, one of the predetermined thresholds may be a rate threshold. A rate threshold may be a threshold that indicates the rate at which the asset 980 has been consumed. For example, a rate threshold may indicate a threshold number of assets 982 that have consumed over a period of time. In some embodiments, there may be different rate thresholds for different types or categories of assets 982. For example, a first rate threshold may be used for shirts and a second rate threshold may be used for coffee. In other embodiments, each geographical location where the assets 982 may be consumed may have different rate thresholds. In further embodiments, an asset 980 may have different rate thresholds. For example, an asset 980 may have two rate thresholds, a higher rate threshold and a lower threshold. The management component 910 may perform various actions when the rate of consumption for an asset 980 is greater than the higher rate threshold or is less than the lower rate threshold, as discussed in more detail below. For example, the management component 910 may adjust the cost of an asset 980 based on whether one or more rate thresholds are satisfied. Adjusting the price based on the rate of consumption may be referred to as surge pricing.

In one embodiment, one of the predetermined thresholds may be a consumption threshold. The expiration threshold may indicate a threshold number of an asset 980 that have been consumed. For example, a consumption threshold may be satisfied when a certain number of an asset 980 at a geographical location have been consumed (e.g., purchased, used, rented, etc.). In some embodiments, there may be different consumption thresholds for different types or categories of assets 982. In other embodiments, each geographical location where the assets 982 may be consumed may have different consumption thresholds. The management component 910 may perform various actions when a consumption threshold is satisfied, as discussed in more detail below. For example, the management component 910 may adjust the cost of an asset 980 based on whether one or more consumption thresholds are satisfied.

In some embodiments, the management component 910 may adjust the cost of one or more assets based on various predetermined thresholds (e.g., based on supply thresholds, rate thresholds, consumption thresholds, expiration thresholds, etc.). For example, the management component 910 may increase the cost of an asset 980 based on one or more predetermined thresholds. Increasing the cost of an asset may disincentivize consumption of the asset 980 (e.g., may cause users to consume less of the asset 980 due to the increased cost). In another example, the management component 910 may decrease the cost of an asset based on one or more predetermined thresholds. Decreasing the cost of an asset may incentivize consumption of the asset 980 (e.g., may cause users to consume more of the asset 980 due to the decreased cost).

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may apply different multipliers to adjust the base cost of an asset 980 when different predetermined thresholds are satisfied. For example, if an expiration threshold is satisfied (e.g., a product will expire in a period of time less than or equal to the expiration threshold), the base cost of an asset may be decreased. In another example, if a rate threshold is satisfied (e.g., the rate of consumption of an asset 980 is above a rate threshold), the base cost of an asset 980 may be increased. In a further example, if a supply threshold is satisfied (e.g., the amount of an asset 980 in stock is less than the supply threshold), the based cost of an asset 980 may be increased.

In another, the management component 910 may also apply multipliers to the base cost of an asset 980 based on various other factors. For example, a multiplier may be applied to the base cost of an asset 980 based on the time of day and/or date (e.g., the cost of an asset 980 may be increased during certain times or days). In another example, a multiplier may be applied based on consumption data for other types of assets 982 that are related to the asset 980. For example, asset 980 may be a shirt and a multiplier for the base cost of the shirt may be applied based on consumption data for a pair of pants. In yet another example, a multiplier may be applied to the base cost of an asset 980 based on user input. For example, an administrator (e.g., manager, owner, etc.) of a store may determine that certain assets 982 in a store should be replaced with another asset 980. The administrator may apply multipliers to the base cost of the certain assets 982 to decrease the cost of the certain assets 982 in order to incentivize users (e.g., customers) to purchase the certain assets 982. In another example, a multiplier may be applied to the base cost of an asset 980 based on how many users (e.g., consumers, customers, etc.) are at a geographical location (e.g., a store). The number of users at a geographical location may indicate how busy the location is. Having more users at a location may indicate that the location is more busy, which may indicate that the prices of an asset 980 may be increased, and vice versa.

In some embodiments, multipliers may be applied to the base cost in various ways. For example, a single multiplier may be applied to the base cost. In another example, multiple multipliers may be applied to the base cost in sequence. For example, a first multiplier may be applied to the base cost to determine a first adjusted cost, and then a second multiplier may be applied to the first adjusted cost to obtain a second adjusted cost. In a further example, multiple multipliers may be combined to obtain a combined multiplier. For example, the multiple multipliers may be added and/or weighted to determine the combined multiplier and the combined multiplier may be used to adjust the base cost. Examples of multipliers and how they may be applied to the base cost of an asset are discussed in more detail below.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may publish one or more messages indicating an adjusted cost of an asset 980 to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. One or more display components 942 and/or one or more client components 931 may be subscribed to the one or more the channels 921A through 921Z and may receive the message that indicates the adjusted cost of an asset 980. In some embodiments, the management component 910 may publish messages indicating an adjusted cost for certain assets 982 and/or for certain geographical locations. For example, management component 910 may publish a message indicating an adjusted cost for certain gallons of milk that will expire within an expiration threshold. In another example, the management component 910 may publish a message indicating an adjusted cost for an asset 980 to client devices 932 that are in a vicinity of a geographical location (e.g., within a store or within a threshold distance of the store). In a further example, the management component may publish a message indicating an adjusted cost for an asset 980 to display components 942 that are located at a geographical location (e.g., to digital signs that are located in a particular store). The message may be used to determine which client devices 932 or which display components 942 the message may be addressed to. For example, the message may include identifiers for client devices 932 or display components 942.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may receive a request to reserve one or more assets 982 at a specific cost (e.g., at a base cost or at an adjusted cost). For example, a client component 931 may publish a messages indicating that a user wants to purchase a quantity of an asset 980 (e.g., bread) at a certain cost (e.g., an adjusted cost). The management component 910 may reserve the quantity of the asset 980 for the user at the certain cost, for a period of time (e.g., for one hour, for five hours, for one day, or for some other appropriate period of time). This may allow the user to purchase the quantity of the asset 980 at the certain cost even though the management component 910 may continue to adjust the base cost of the asset 980 based on various predetermined thresholds and/or factors, as discussed above.

In one embodiment, the management component 910 may apply a current cost for an asset 980 that was in effect when the user is in a geographical area. For example, when a user enters a store, the management component 910 may use the current cost of the asset 980 when the user entered the store. The management component 910 may allow the user to consume the asset 980 at the current cost (e.g., to purchase the asset 980), rather than adjust the cost of the asset 980 (e.g., increase the cost of the asset 980) while the user is browsing through the store.

In one embodiment, when the management component 910 publishes a message indicating an adjusted cost for an asset 980, the adjusted cost for the asset 980 may be valid for a period of time. For example, the adjusted cost for an asset 980 may be valid for two hours, one day, or some other appropriate period of time after the messages indicating the adjusted cost was published to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z.

In one embodiment, a client device 930 may be a computing or electronic device of a user such as a customer or a consumer. Examples of computing or electronic devices may include smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, laptop computers, desktop computers, gaming consoles, cellular phones, media players, etc. Each client device 930 includes a client component 931. In one embodiment, the client components 931 may include software components executing on the client devices 932. For example, the client components 931 may be applications, software, apps, software services, etc., that are executing on the client devices 932. The client component 931 may publish messages to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z and may be subscribed to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. The client component 931 may provide, present, or display various graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to the user of client device 930.

In one embodiment, the client component 931 may allow the user (e.g., a customer) to view the assets 982 that are available for consumption and to view costs (e.g., base costs or adjusted costs) for an asset 980. For example, the client component 931 may receive messages indicating adjusted costs for assets 982, which are published by the management component 910. In another embodiment, the client component 931 may also receive messages from the management component 910 that may indicate alternatives or substitutes for an asset 980. For example, if a user is browsing costs for cappuccinos, the user may receive messages that may indicate the cost of espressos. In a further embodiment, the client component 931 may receive messages from the management component 910 that may indicate special costs, discounts, etc., that may be available to a user based on the user's consumption history (e.g., purchase history) and/or user preferences. For example, the client component 931 may allow a user to specify user preferences for consuming assets. The user preferences may be included in account information associated with the user and the account information may be stored in the data store 970. A consumption history (e.g., a purchase history) for the user may also be included in the account information. Based on a user's account information, the management component 910 may publish messages to the client component 931 that include adjusted costs for certain assets, discounts for certain assets, etc. For example, based on a user's purchase history, the management component 910 may determine that a user buys milk every two days. The management component 910 may provide an adjusted cost for milk that will expire in three days to the client component 931 in order to incentive the user to buy the milk that will expire in three days, versus milk that will expire in more than three days. In another example, a user's preferences may indicate that the user prefers the freshest milk be used when the user purchases cappuccinos. The management component 910 may increase (e.g., adjust) the cost of cappuccinos for the user because the user prefers to use the freshest milk, as opposed to milk that will expire sooner.

In one embodiment, the client component 931 may also allow the user to reserve a quantity of an asset 980. For example, the client component 931 may present a GUI that lists various assets 982 that may be available for consumption and their respective costs. The client component 931 may allow the user to reserve a quantity of an asset 980 at a specific cost. The client component 931 may publish a message to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z indicating that the user wants to reserve the quantity of the asset 980 at the specific cost. The management component 910 may receive the message from the client component 931 and may reserve the quantity of the asset 980 for the user.

In one embodiment, a display component 941 may be an electronic or computing device, such as a server computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a smartphone, etc., hardware, software (e.g., software components, applications, software, apps, software services, etc.), firmware, or a combination thereof. The display component 941 may be subscribed to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the display component 941 to receive data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) from other components or portions of the system architecture 900. The display component 941 may also publish data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the display component 941 to transmit or send data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to other components or portions of the system architecture 900.

In one embodiment, the display component 941 may include a display, such as a digital sign, a liquid crystal disclose (LCD) screen, a light emitting diode (LED) screen, a touchscreen, a split-flap display, or other electronic display, that may be used to present costs for assets 982 to users (e.g., customers) who are at a geographical location (e.g., a store, a kiosk, a stand, a shop, etc.). The display component 941 may receive a message published by the management component 910 indicating an updated cost for an asset 980. The display component 941 may present the updated cost to the users via the display.

In one embodiment, a supply component 951 may be an electronic or computing device, such as a server computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a smartphone, etc., hardware, software (e.g., software components, applications, software, apps, software services, etc.), firmware, or a combination thereof. Supply component 951 may be subscribed to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the supply component 951 to receive data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) from other components or portions of the system architecture 900. The supply component 951 may also publish data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z. This may allow the supply component 951 to transmit or send data (e.g., messages, packets, etc.) to other components or portions of the system architecture 900.

In one embodiment, the supply component 951 may receive messages from the management component 910 indicating that the amount of an asset 980 is below a threshold amount. For example, the supply component 951 may receive a message from the management component 910 indicating that the supply of milk at a store is below a threshold amount. The supply component 951 may automatically initiate a shipment of milk to the store. Receiving the messages from the management component 910 may allow the supply component 951 to improve efficiency and reduce the possibility that a geographical location (e.g., a store, a kiosk, a stand, etc.) will run out of different assets 982. This may also allow the management component 910 to reduce the amount of unnecessary storage of assets 982 that are not being consumed quickly. For example, if management component 910 determines that a certain product is not being consumed quickly enough, the management component 910 may transmit one or more messages to the supply component 951 to indicate that less storage space should be used for the asset 980. The management component 910 may analyze short term and/or long term inventory trends on various assets 982 based on the consumption data. The management component 910 may communicate data about the short term and/or long term inventory trends with the supply component 951 via one or more of the channels 921A through 921Z.

In some embodiments, the components of the system architecture 900 may use the filtering capabilities of the messaging system 920. For example, a display component 941 may filter out messages published by the management component 910 to identify the messages that are addressed to the display component 941.

Although the components of the system architecture 900 are illustrated as separate from the messaging system 920 in FIG. 9, the components of the system architecture 900 may be included as part of the messaging system 920 in other embodiments. For example, the management component 910 may be part of a Q node, a MX node, or a configuration manager. In some embodiments, one or more of the management component 910 or the messaging system 920 may be located within a datacenter or a cloud computing system or architecture. In other embodiments, the management component 910 may be divided or separated into multiple different components. Although one management component 910 is illustrated in FIG. 9, more management components 910 may be included in the system architecture 900 in other embodiments. In addition, it shall be understood that the configuration of the channels 921A through 921Z (e.g., the number of channels, and the publisher or subscribers of the channels 921A through 921Z) illustrated in FIG. 9 are merely examples and other configurations may be used in other embodiments. For example, two or more channels may be combined into a single channel.

FIG. 10A is an example table 1000 that illustrates different multipliers that may be applied to an asset based on different expiration thresholds. The table 1000 includes three rows, each row representing one or more assets (e.g., assets 982 illustrated in FIG. 9), such as milk. The table 1000 also includes eight columns, 1001 through 1008. Column 1001 indicates a name for the asset (e.g., milk). Column 1002 indicates when an asset was received. Column 1003 indicates an expiration date for an asset. Column 1004 indicates the current date. Column 1005 indicates the base cost for an asset. Column 1006 indicates the number of days until an asset expires. Column 1007 indicates a multiplier for adjusting the base cost of an asset. Column 1008 indicates the adjusted cost of an asset.

Generally, most assets (e.g., products, perishable items, etc.) cost the same regardless of when the assets may expire (e.g., regardless of the shelf life of the asset). The embodiments, examples, and implementations described herein may allow organizations or entities to adjust cost of an asset based on expiration thresholds or expiration dates. Referring to table 1000, the milk that was received on May 1, 2017 will expire in three days. Because the milk that was received on May 1, 2017 will expire in three days, a multiplier of 0.5 is applied to the base cost of $2.00 to obtain an adjusted cost of $1.00. The milk that was received on May 5, 2017 will expire in seven days. Because the milk that was received on May 5, 2017 still has seven days before it expires, a multiplier of 0.8 is applied to the base cost of $2.00 to obtain an adjusted cost of $1.60. The milk that was received on May 8, 2017 will expire in ten days. Because the milk that was received on May 8, 2017 is the freshest milk, a multiplier of 1.0 is applied to the base cost of $2.00 which results in no adjustment to the cost of the milk.

Adjusting the cost of an asset based on expiration thresholds or expiration dates may reduce the amount of assets that are wasted. For example, reducing the cost of an asset that will expire soon may increase the chance that some user (e.g., a customer, a consumer, etc.) may consume (e.g., purchase) the asset, which prevents the asset from being discarded due to its expiration date. In addition, adjusting the cost of the asset based on expiration thresholds or expiration dates may allow consumers who have less disposable income to be able to purchase assets they may otherwise not purchase because the adjustment in the cost may allow the consumers to purchase those assets.

FIG. 10B is an example table 1010 that illustrates different multipliers that may be applied to an asset based on different consumption thresholds. The table 1010 includes five rows 1011 through 1015, one row for each consumption threshold. The table 1010 also includes four columns. The first column indicates the amount of an asset that is in inventory (e.g., the amount of an asset that a store has in stock). The second column indicates the base cost for an asset. The third column indicates a multiplier for adjusting the base cost of an asset. The fourth column indicates the adjusted cost of an asset.

As illustrated in FIG. 10B, the amount of an asset that is available for consumption (e.g., the amount of an asset that is in a store's inventory) may be used to determine a multiplier for adjusting the base cost of an asset. Row 1011 of table 1010 illustrates that when there are 1500 units of an asset available for consumption (e.g., for purchase), a multiplier of 0.9 is applied to the base cost to obtain an adjusted cost of $9.00. Row 1012 of table 1010 illustrates that when there are 1000 units of an asset available for consumption, a multiplier of 1 is applied which results in no adjustment to the base cast. Row 1013 of table 1010 illustrates that when there are 500 units of an asset available for consumption (e.g., for purchase), a multiplier of 1.1 is applied to the base cost to obtain an adjusted cost of $11.00. Row 1014 of table 1010 illustrates that when there are 200 units of an asset available for consumption (e.g., for purchase), a multiplier of 1.2 is applied to the base cost to obtain an adjusted cost of $12.00. Row 1015 of table 1010 illustrates that when there are 100 units of an asset available for consumption (e.g., for purchase), a multiplier of 1.25 is applied to the base cost to obtain an adjusted cost of $12.50. Other multipliers are possible. Adjusting the cost for an asset based on the consumption or rate of consumption for the asset may be referred to as surge pricing. For example, as more units of an asset are consumed, the cost for an asset may be increased due to the popular demand for the asset, as illustrated in FIG. 10B.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an example method 1100 for adjusting the cost for an asset. Method 1100 may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, a processor, a processing device, a central processing unit (CPU), a system-on-chip (SoC), etc.), software (e.g., instructions running/executing on a processing device), firmware (e.g., microcode), or a combination thereof. For example, the method 1100 can be implemented using, for example, a computing device, a management component (e.g., management component 910 illustrated in FIG. 9), a messaging system (e.g., messaging system 920 illustrated in FIG. 9), an application, software components, etc. The method 1100 begins at block 1105 where the method 1100 receives consumption data via one or more channels of a messaging system (e.g., a real-time messaging system, a PubSub messaging system, etc.). As discussed above, the consumption data may be provided by tracking components (e.g., tracking components 981 illustrated in FIG. 1) and/or transaction components (e.g., transaction components 962 illustrated in FIG. 9). The method 1100 determines whether one or more thresholds are satisfied based on the consumption data at block 1110. The method 1100 may determine whether one or more of a supply threshold, a consumption threshold, an expiration threshold, and a rate threshold are satisfied, as discussed above. For example, the method 1100 may analyze the consumption data to determine whether a threshold amount of an asset has been consumed during a period of time (e.g., whether a rate threshold was satisfied).

If no thresholds are satisfied, the method 1100 may proceed to optional block 1125, as discussed in more detail below. If one or more threshold are satisfied, the method 1100 may adjust the cost for an asset (e.g., adjust a base cost for the asset) based on one or more multipliers at block 1115, as discussed above. For example, the method 1100 may apply one multiplier to the base cost. In another example, the method 1100 may apply a plurality of multipliers in sequence to the base cost. In a further example, the method 1100 may use a plurality of multipliers to determine a combined multiplier and may apply the combined multiplier to the base cost. At block 1120, the method 1100 may publish one or more messages indicating the adjust cost to one or more channels of the messaging system. This may allow display components (e.g., display components 942 illustrated in FIG. 9) and client components (e.g., client components 931 illustrated in FIG. 9) to receive the updated cost for the asset.

At optional block 1125, the method 1100 may receive a request to reserve one or more assets at a certain cost, as discussed above. For example, the method 1100 may receive a request from a client component to reserve a quantity of an asset at a certain cost. At optional block 1130, the method 1100 may reserve the one or more assets at the certain cost for a period of time, as discussed above.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an example computing device 1200 that may perform one or more of the operations described herein, in accordance with the present embodiments. The computing device 1200 may be connected to other computing devices in a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, and/or the Internet. The computing device 1200 may operate in the capacity of a server machine in client-server network environment or in the capacity of a client in a peer-to-peer network environment. The computing device 1200 may be provided by a personal computer (PC), a set-top box (STB), a server, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single computing device 1200 is illustrated, the term “computing device” shall also be taken to include any collection of computing devices that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform the methods discussed herein.

The example computing device 1200 may include a computer processing device (e.g., a general purpose processor, ASIC, etc.) 1202, a main memory 1204, a static memory 1206 (e.g., flash memory and a data storage device 1208), which may communicate with each other via a bus 1210. The computer processing device 1202 may be provided by one or more general-purpose processing devices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. In an illustrative example, computer processing device 1202 may comprise a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or a processor implementing other instruction sets or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. The computer processing device 1202 may also comprise one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or the like. The computer processing device 1202 may be configured to execute the operations described herein, in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure, for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.

The computing device 1200 may further include a network interface device 1212, which may communicate with a network 1214. The data storage device 1208 may include a machine-readable storage medium 1216 on which may be stored one or more sets of instructions, e.g., instructions for carrying out the operations described herein, in accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. Instructions implementing module 1218 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within main memory 1204 and/or within computer processing device 1202 during execution thereof by the computing device 1200, main memory 1204 and computer processing device 1202 also constituting computer-readable media. The instructions may further be transmitted or received over the network 1214 via the network interface device 1212.

While machine-readable storage medium 1216 is shown in an illustrative example to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform the methods described herein. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media and magnetic media.

Embodiments of the subject matter and the operations described in this specification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented as one or more computer programs, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions, encoded on computer storage medium for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. Alternatively, or in addition, the program instructions can be encoded on an artificially-generated propagated signal, e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, that is generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus for execution by a data processing apparatus. A computer storage medium can be, or be included in, a computer-readable storage device, a computer-readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memory array or device, or a combination of one or more of them. Moreover, while a computer storage medium is not a propagated signal, a computer storage medium can be a source or destination of computer program instructions encoded in an artificially-generated propagated signal. The computer storage medium can also be, or be included in, one or more separate physical components or media (e.g., multiple CDs, disks, or other storage devices).

The operations described in this specification can be implemented as operations performed by a data processing apparatus on data stored on one or more computer-readable storage devices or received from other sources.

The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all kinds of apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a computer processing device, a computer, a system on a chip, or multiple ones, or combinations, of the foregoing. A computer processing device may include one or more processors which can include special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), a central processing unit (CPU), a multi-core processor, etc. The apparatus can also include, in addition to hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, a cross-platform runtime environment, a virtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them. The apparatus and execution environment can realize various different computing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributed computing and grid computing infrastructures.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script, or code) can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative, procedural, or functional languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, object, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program may, but need not, correspond to a file in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language resource), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this specification can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform actions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing actions in accordance with instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic disks, magneto-optical disks, optical disks, or solid state drives. However, a computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer can be embedded in another device, e.g., a smart phone, a mobile audio or media player, a game console, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, or a portable storage device (e.g., a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive), to name just a few. Devices suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including, by way of example, semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented on a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse, a trackball, a touchpad, or a stylus, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input. In addition, a computer can interact with a user by sending resources to and receiving resources from a device that is used by the user; for example, by sending web pages to a web browser on a user's client device in response to requests received from the web browser.

Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component, e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the subject matter described in this specification, or any combination of one or more such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The components of the system can be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a wide area network (“WAN”), an inter-network (e.g., the Internet), and peer-to-peer networks (e.g., ad hoc peer-to-peer networks).

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other. In some embodiments, a server transmits data (e.g., an HTML page) to a client device (e.g., for purposes of displaying data to and receiving user input from a user interacting with the client device). Data generated at the client device (e.g., a result of the user interaction) can be received from the client device at the server.

A system of one or more computers can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that in operation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or more computer programs can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any inventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.

Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving consumption data via a first channel of a plurality of channels of a publish-subscribe (“PubSub”) system, wherein the consumption data indicates an amount of consumption of an asset; determining whether one or more predetermined thresholds are satisfied based on the consumption data; adjusting a cost of the asset in response to determining that the consumption data satisfies the one or more predetermined thresholds; and publishing, by a computer processing device, one or more messages indicating an adjusted cost of the asset to one or more client devices via a second channel of the plurality of channels of the PubSub system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the cost of the asset comprises one or more of: decreasing the cost of the asset; or increasing the cost of the asset.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost of the asset is adjusted to incentivize consumption of the asset or to disincentivize consumption of the asset.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more predetermined thresholds comprise a supply threshold that indicates whether additional quantities of the asset should be obtained.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: publishing a message via a third channel of the plurality of channels indicating that additional quantities of the asset should be obtained.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more predetermined thresholds comprise an expiration threshold that indicates a time when the asset should no longer be consumed.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more predetermined thresholds comprise a rate threshold that indicates a rate at which the asset has been consumed.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein: the consumption data further indicates a second amount of consumption of a second asset; and the asset is constructed using the second asset.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more predetermined thresholds comprise a consumption threshold that indicates a number of the asset that has been consumed.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the consumption data is published to the first channel by a transaction component and wherein the transaction component allows one or more users to consume the asset.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the consumption data is published to the first channel by a tracking component associated with the asset.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more client devices are associated with one or more users that are in a vicinity of a location where the asset is located.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more client devices comprise one or more displays that are configured to present the adjusted cost to one or more users.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, via a third channel of the plurality of channels, a request to reserve a quantity of the asset at the adjusted cost; and reserving the quantity of the asset at the adjusted cost.
 15. An apparatus, comprising: a computer processing device to: receive consumption data via a first channel of a plurality of channels of a publish-subscribe (“PubSub”) system, wherein the consumption data indicates an amount of consumption of an asset; determine whether one or more predetermined thresholds are satisfied based on the consumption data; adjust a cost of the asset in response to determining that the consumption data satisfies the one or more predetermined thresholds; and publish one or more messages indicating an adjusted cost of the asset to one or more client devices via a second channel of the plurality of channels of the PubSub system.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the consumption data is published to the first channel by a transaction component and wherein the transaction component allows one or more users to consume the asset.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the consumption data is published to the first channel by a tracking component associated with the asset.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more client devices are associated with users that are in a vicinity of a location where the asset is located.
 19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more client devices comprise one or more displays that are configured to present the adjusted cost to one or more users.
 20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a computer processing device, cause the computer processing device to: receive consumption data via a first channel of a plurality of channels of a publish-subscribe (“PubSub”) system, wherein the consumption data indicates an amount of consumption of an asset; determine whether one or more predetermined thresholds are satisfied based on the consumption data; adjust a cost of the asset in response to determining that the consumption data satisfies the one or more predetermined thresholds; and publish, by the computer processing device, one or more messages indicating an adjusted cost of the asset to one or more client devices via a second channel of the plurality of channels of the PubSub system. 